William Mary

No. 15 Towson (5-1, 3-0 Colonial Athletic Association) @ No. 14 William & Mary (4-3, 2-2 CAA) Time: Saturday, 3:30 p.m. Site: Zable Stadium, Williamsburg, Va. Radio: 1570 AM Series: William & Mary leads 7-0. What's at stake: The Tigers will look to keep their dream season going with another win against a ranked team. Towson is tied for first place in the CAA alongside Maine and has three wins against ranked opponents this season.

National Lacrosse League Westervelt helps Wings beat Swarm to end skid Drew Westervelt (UMBC, John Carroll) tied for the game high with four goals and four assists as the host Philadelphia Wings rallied past the Minnesota Swarm, 15-13, before an announced 6,861 at Wells Fargo Center on Sunday afternoon. Paul Rabil (Johns Hopkins) added two goals and three assists for the Wings (6-8), who ended a five-game losing streak. Brendan Mundorf (UMBC, Mount St. Joseph)

Freshman Julian Boatner scored a career-high 22 points, including six 3-pointers, as visiting William & Mary rolled to its second consecutive victory, 83-68, over host Towson on Wednesday night. The Tribe (6-12, 2-5 Colonial Athletic Association) made 14 3-pointers and connected on a season-high 55.8 percent from the field against the Tigers (4-13, 0-7). Boatner made six of seven 3-point attempts against Towson and connected on four of five free throws. He was one of six Tribe players to make at least one 3-point basket.

Et cetera Brenton gets Driesell honor for defense Stony Brook senior forward Tommy Brenton (River Hill) was named the winner of the Lefty Driesell Award as the National Defensive Player of the Year, CollegeInsider.com announced at its awards banquet Friday night in Atlanta. Brenton led the Seawolves in steals with 54 and was named the America East Defensive Player of the Year for the second straight season. Stony Brook ranks sixth in the nation in field-goal percentage defense (.378 percent)

Maryland coach Gary Williams had known precisely what his Terps were facing. He knew William & Mary was an efficient, senior-dominated team built for 3-point shooting and primed to knock off major-conference opponents. So it must have been a helpless feeling for Williams to watch the Tribe build a 16-point second-half lead by smoothly running its variation of the Princeton offense as the Terps failed to keep pace with William & Mary's long-range accuracy. Maryland - urged on by a restless Comcast Center crowd - attempted several second-half comebacks, but shot too poorly - four of 25 on threes - and succumbed, 83-77.

In his team's first action since allowing 41 points in its season opener, Towson coach Rob Ambrose on Saturday came up with a rather straight-forward approach to stopping William & Mary. "If they don't have the ball, then outside of us being stupid they can't score," Ambrose said. "There's a mentality there. " The No. 12 Tigers maintained possession for nearly 36 minutes, running 19 more offensive plays than their opponent in a 20-17 win over the Tribe before an announced 8,309 at Johnny Unitas Stadium.

The Maryland football team is tentatively scheduled to open the 2012 season at home on Sept. 1 vs William & Mary, followed by games at Temple on  Sept. 8, home against Connecticut on  Sept. 15 and at West Virginia on Sept. 22. The matchups have not yet been officially announced by the Atlantic Coast Conference, but the schedule is far enough along that the school has been given nonconference opponents and dates. Maryland's home conference schedule (no dates yet available)

Maryland opened its season Saturday with hope inspired by a new quarterback, new offensive and defensive coordinators, new kicker, new FieldTurf and new uniforms that – unlike last year – displayed the players' names on their backs. But, for the longest time, no Terp crossed into the colorful new end zones featuring bold, Maryland flag-inspired patterns. The new quarterback threw three interceptions. The kicker missed a first-half chip shot. For three quarters, the players may have wished their names weren't attached to their jerseys.

Jerelle Benimon scored 26 points to lead five players in double figures, and Towson came back from a 13-point deficit in the second half to beat William & Mary, 99-86, in double overtime Wednesday night in a Colonial Athletic Association men's basketball game. Marcus Damas scored 19 points, Mike Burwell had 18, Rafriel Guthrie 15 and Jerome Hairston 13 for the Tigers (8-8, 3-0 CAA). Benimon had a game-high 12 rebounds to help Towson earn its fourth win in a row. William & Mary All-CAA guard Marcus Thornton, held to two points in the first half, finished with 24. Brandon Britt scored 17, Kyle Gaillard had 14, and Matt Rum (Loyola)

Maryland forward Jordan Williams can recite William & Mary's shooting statistics from memory - specifically how the Tribe attempts 27 3-pointers per game. If the Terrapins seem to be paying particular attention to tonight's opponent, it's because they have to. The Terps (8-3) don't have the luxury of an eye-catching, nonconference win to boost their credentials for the NCAA tournament committee. Last season at this time, Maryland had victories over Michigan State and Michigan. Absent such a win this season, the Terps know how much it could cost them to drop a game to a mid-major team, even a potent one such as William & Mary of the Colonial Athletic Association.

Matt Tilley hasn't had much free time outside of practice this year. In fact, Gilman baseball coach Larry Sheets said the senior has taken just two days off since August -- both between the football and basketball seasons and none between the basketball and baseball seasons. Such is the life of a three-sport athlete. And he hasn't just participated in football, basketball and baseball -- he has excelled in all three. He played wide receiver and free safety for the Gilman football team that won the Maryland Interscholastic Athletic Association A Conference last fall, served as captain for the basketball team that was one win away from winning its second consecutive MIAA B Conference title in the winter and stars all over the field for the No. 10 Greyhounds in baseball.

Maryland's women's lacrosse team will head up Interstate 95 this weekend to do something that most coaches usually try to avoid -- play games on back-to-back days. The No. 1 Terps will play at Atlantic Coast Conference foe Boston College on Saturday at 1 p.m. and then hop down to Long Island to meet Stony Brook on Sunday at 4 p.m. Fortunately for the Terps, spring break begins Monday. “We were going to head up there during spring break, so it just so happened that we could knock both games out both with one trip, head up to Boston and then Long Island,” Terps coach Cathy Reese said.

Jerelle Benimon scored 26 points to lead five players in double figures, and Towson came back from a 13-point deficit in the second half to beat William & Mary, 99-86, in double overtime Wednesday night in a Colonial Athletic Association men's basketball game. Marcus Damas scored 19 points, Mike Burwell had 18, Rafriel Guthrie 15 and Jerome Hairston 13 for the Tigers (8-8, 3-0 CAA). Benimon had a game-high 12 rebounds to help Towson earn its fourth win in a row. William & Mary All-CAA guard Marcus Thornton, held to two points in the first half, finished with 24. Brandon Britt scored 17, Kyle Gaillard had 14, and Matt Rum (Loyola)

In his team's first action since allowing 41 points in its season opener, Towson coach Rob Ambrose on Saturday came up with a rather straight-forward approach to stopping William & Mary. "If they don't have the ball, then outside of us being stupid they can't score," Ambrose said. "There's a mentality there. " The No. 12 Tigers maintained possession for nearly 36 minutes, running 19 more offensive plays than their opponent in a 20-17 win over the Tribe before an announced 8,309 at Johnny Unitas Stadium.

No. 12 Towson (0-1, 0-0 CAA) vs. William & Mary (0-2, 0-0 CAA) Time: 12 p.m. Site: Johnny Unitas Stadium Radio: 1370 AM Television: NBC Sports Network Series: William & Mary leads 7-1 What's at stake: Towson surprised everyone to win the Colonial Athletic Association last year after being picked to finish last in preseason polls. Now the pressure is on the Tigers to live up to their billing as the preseason favorite in 2012. Picking up an early conference win on national television after their season-opening loss at Kent State will be huge.

I think the key for Maryland on Saturday will be the running game - stopping Temple's and getting the Terps' going. Matt Brown, the Owls' senior tailback (he is from Baltimore but attended the Peddie School and Milford Academy) had 145 yards on 19 carries in a win against Villanova last week. Brown also had four punt returns for 84 yards. "He's quick, he's shfity, he's fast, he's tough," Maryland coach Randy Edsall said today. The Owls had 301 rushing yards in their 41-10 victory.

Sheree Ledbetter scored with four-tenths of a second remaining to give Towson a 77-75 win over William & Mary on Thursday at the Towson Center. The Tigers (11-4, 2-2 Colonial Athletic Association) ended a two-game losing streak with their fourth win this season in the final 10 seconds of play. "I'm proud of the way we responded," said coach Joe Mathews. "You can't simulate [late game situations] in practice. This league is full of close games, and our team is really confident that if we have the ball at the end of the game we can find a way to win. " The last-second basket came after the Tribe (8-7, 1-3 CAA)

Freshman quarterback Perry Hills sat in the Gossett Football Team House auditorium with an ice pack strapped to his sore right knee and answered waves of media questions about the three interceptions he had just thrown in his first college game. The questions didn't change - Were you overwhelmed? Nervous? Frustrated? - and neither did the Maryland player's expression. Hills' best - and most necessary - attribute this season may be his resilience. He appears as stoic and unflappable as an Apollo astronaut.

Maryland coach Randy Edsall was asking fans Saturday to be patient with his team. The Terps had just survived their opener against William & Mary, winning 7-6. Edsall said he hoped fans "are patient with them. You know, they're going to be better and they're working. But they need the support. " It's a work in progress, and what I'll be looking at is not only wins and losses -- but rather the arc. Do the Terps improve as the season progresses? Are they learning and making fewer mistakes?