Ecc

The last time Towson State and Rider College played at the Towson Center, the coalition forces were bombing Baghdad to begin the liberation of Kuwait.It was Jan. 16 and "that was the night I got my 1,000th point," said Tigers guard Devin Boyd, the East Coast Conference Player of the Year. "We found out about the war afterward. It wasn't a factor during the game."A cease-fire now prevails in the Persian Gulf and it is the ECC battling for survival, as top-seeded Towson and No. 6 Rider prepare to clash tonight for the conference title and an automatic berth in the National Collegiate Athletic Association tournament.

The unlikely journey of Rider College to today's East Coast Conference championship game -- and brink of the NCAA tournament -- may actually have begun along a barren stretch of New Jersey turnpike two summers ago.That's where Darrick Suber, the Pittsburgh City League Player of the Year in 1989, stopped to call Rider coach Kevin Bannon and ask if he still had a basketball scholarship left. Suber had just had a change of heart about enrolling at St. Francis in Brooklyn and was driving home to Pennsylvania.

Towson State was in the waning moments of snuffing UMBC's valiant upset bid in the East Coast Conference tournament semifinals yesterday afternoon when some zealous Tigers fans took liberties."

During an eight-year run at the Towson Center, the East Coast Conference basketball tournament has evolved from a minor event important only to the principals into a full-scale happening complete with league-record crowds and national cable television for the championship game.Nearly 9,000 attended the three sessions last March, with 4,435 cramming the arena for Towson State's title clinching."The first year, we had a big snowstorm and lost money," recalled Towson athletic director Bill Hunter.

Towson State has the best record, a first-round bye and home-court advantage. Delaware has the best athletes and the longest winning streak. UMBC has a streak of superstition.It will be a curious mix of motivation when the East Coast Conference tournament begins tomorrow at Towson Center. Towson is pegged as the heavy favorite to repeat as champion, but almost every team brings something to the table.Take UMBC, for example. Two weeks ago, the Retrievers were a puny 2-21. Then, abracadabra, they win four in a row. Coach Earl Hawkins pinned the turnaround on players finding their "niche" in the system.

HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. -- Junior forward Chuck Lightening shot 10-for-10 from the field and finished with a game-high 21 points, as Towson State clinched the East Coast Conference regular-season championship with a 76-66 victory over Hofstra University (13-12, 6-4) yesterday. A Hofstra win would have kept it in the title race.This was the eighth straight time Hofstra (13-12, 6-4) had lost to the Tigers (16-8, 10-1), who earned a first-round bye in the ECC tournament, which begins at the Towson Center on March 2.The triumph was the Tigers' seventh in a row on the road for an overall road mark of 8-3.Towson State broke away from the 12th tie of the game at 57 when junior guard Devin Boyd hit two free throws with 7 minutes, 49 seconds left.

NEWARK, Del. -- Forward Mark Murray scored 17 of his game-high 22 points in the second half, including two key baskets in the final two minutes, as Delaware (11-12, 6-4) defeated the University of Maryland Baltimore County (2-21, 1-8), 73-68, in an East Coast Conference game last night at Delaware Field House.CMurray broke a 66-66 tie with a three-point play with 1:43 left and added a basket inside with 20 seconds remaining to lead the Blue Hens to their fourth straight ECC win and third straight overall.

A game that began with Towson State looking to clinch the East Coast Conference regular-season championship ended instead with a center-court celebration by Drexel.A three-pointer by Drexel's Clarence Armstrong with seveseconds left lifted the Dragons to a 78-75 win before 1,480 at the Towson Center.The loss kept Towson (15-8, 9-1) from clinching the conferenctitle and ended the Tigers' unbeaten conference record, their 14-game ECC winning streak and a seven-game winning streak against the Dragons (10-14, 5-4)

The East Coast Conference will be in the awkward position next month of having its men's postseason basketball tournament hosted by a member that wants out. Even though the Towson State administration is going ahead with plans to enter the North Atlantic Conference, the ECC tournament still will be held at the Towson Center March 2, 3 and 5.The Tigers, currently 9-0 in the league, will be seeking their second straight ECC title. They need just one more conference victory in three tries to wrap up the regular-season title and a first-round bye in the tournament.

Devin Boyd, the East Coast Conference's No. 2 scorer, was on the Towson State University bench yesterday, dressed but ailing with a case of the flu.The league's top scorer, Obet Vazquez of Central Connecticut, was on the opposite bench in street clothes, the victim of an injured knee and not available to play.It took little more than 10 minutes to realize the Tigers would weather their loss much more easily than the undermanned Blue Devils.Towson remained unbeaten in the ECC and clinched at least a share of the regular-season title with an 84-76 victory at the Towson Center that was more routine than inspiring.