Tribe Men’s Basketball Falls at Drexel, 83-72

W&M’s Adam Hess Leads All Scorers with Career High 36 Points

02/07/04 5:35PM

PHILADELPHIA, PA - William and Mary senior forward Adam Hess (Grosse Pointe, MI) scored a career high 36 points, but could not lead the Tribe men’s basketball team to victory, as W&M lost to Drexel, 83-72, this afternoon at the Daskalakis Athletic Center.

W&M’s record drops to 6-16 overall and 3-10 in the Colonial Athletic Association, while the Dragons improve to 14-7 (9-3 CAA).

The two teams played it close early on, with the score tied at 10 less than five minutes in. From there the Tribe scored seven unanswered points, including five by Hess, the CAA’s Preseason Player of the Year, but Drexel answered back with seven-straight of their own to tie the game at 17 with 12:38 left in the first period. It remained a one-possession game through most of the period, but DU closed out the half with 14-6 run for a 40-33 lead at the break.

In the second half the Dragons quickly stretched the lead to 12 points, holding a 49-37 lead with 15:05 to go in the game. W&M stormed back with a 17-4 run over the next 4:20, again led by Hess with 11 points and ending with a three-pointer by senior forward Zeb Cope (Hopkins, SC) to take a 54-53 lead with 10:45 remaining. Phil Goss hit a three for the Dragons and Cope scored a layup to tie the game at 56, but the Dragons proceeded to score 11 straight from there for a 67-56 lead. The Tribe could get no closer than eight points the rest of the way, as Drexel won, 83-72.

Hess had six rebounds and four assists to go along with his career high 36 points in the game, while Tribe rookie forward Corey Cofield (Wellesley, MA) had his fourth double-double of the season, scoring 18 points and pulling down a career-high 13 rebounds. Cope also played well with 13 points and eight rebounds. Redshirt-freshman center Brian Hutt (Denver, CO) came off the bench to record five blocked shots along with four rebounds, two points and two assists. Goss had 22 points for the Dragons, while Sean Brooks had 21, Tim Whitworth had 17 and Jeremiah King added 12.

W&M will return to action on Wednesday, February 11 against Delaware, the first of three straight home games for the Tribe.


Box Score


Post-Game Quotes from W&M Head Coach Tony Shaver
“I thought we played extremely hard against a great basketball team. They’ve got a lot of weapons, they’re tough to defend. We tried to take [Sean] Brooks away inside, and then you’ve got [Tim] Whitworth and [Phil] Goss shooting it from the outside. They’re a great basketball team.”

“[Drexel] makes shots. They make tough shots, they make open shots. We missed a lot of shots tonight that were really big—a lot of wide open jump shots at times.”

“I was very proud of our effort. We competed like champions. We got beat by a better basketball team, but we really competed hard. I’ll take that any day.”

“The thing about Adam Hess, when I first came to William and Mary I thought that Adam was a good scorer... But I thought that he was a little bit of a one-dimensional player. He is one tough kid right now. I am really proud of his toughness on the floor. He takes some shots from the opponents. I’m proud of his toughness and I’m proud of his effort He’s really learned to be a leader for us, too.”