W&M Men’s Basketball Falls at Campbell, 75-62

Rookie Edwin Ofori Attah Scores 17 Points as Tribe Suffers First Loss of Season

11/24/04 2:29AM

BUIES CREEK, NC - William and Mary freshman forward Edwin Ofori Attah (Davidson, NC) scored 17 points, but it was not enough, as the Tribe men’s basketball team fell at Campbell, 75-62, Tuesday night at Carter Gymnasium.

The loss is the first of the season for W&M, which falls to 2-1 on the year. The Fighting Camels improve to 1-1 this season.

The Camels opened the contest with an 11-1 lead and never looked back, going ahead by as many as 17 points in the first half before taking a 12-point, 45-33 advantage into halftime. The Tribe started to come back in the second, using a 17-10 run over the first 10 minutes, ending with a layup by junior center Nate Loehrke (Kalamazoo, MI), to close to within five at 55-50. The two teams traded free throws, before sophomore guard Adam Trumbower (Roanoke, VA) knocked down a pair from the line, to cut Campbell’s lead to just three, 56-53, with 7:56 remaining. The Camels led 60-54, before a three-pointer from junior Taylor Mokris (Charlotte, NC) cut the lead back to three points with 6:05 to play. However, that would be as close as the Tribe would get, as Campbell went on an 11-3 run over the next six minutes to put the game away.

Joining Ofori Attah in double figures was junior forward Hawley Smith (Jacksonville, FL), who had 11 points on 4-5 shooting from the field and a 3-3 performance from the free throw line. Anthony Atkinson led three Campbell players in double figures with 18 points, while Comerlee Poole had a double-double with 10 points and a game-high 12 rebounds.

W&M shot .382 from the field, including a 4-27 (.148) effort from the three-point line, while the Camels shot 28-60 (.467) in the game.

The Tribe returns to action at home on Sunday, November 28 at 2:00 PM against Virginia Tech.


Box Score

Post-Game Quotes from W&M Head Coach Tony Shaver
“I think the key to the game was mental preparation. We had a great weekend, but we didn’t prepare in practice yesterday and we didn’t prepare to play today. I will say that Campbell was the aggressive team and the aggressive team usually wins basketball games. They were prepared, they were excited and we weren’t.”

“I was proud of us making the effort to get back in it in the second half, but you can’t dig that big of a hole and expect to win on the road. I though the second half we did a pretty good job being aggressive. We cut the lead down several times and just didn’t make the key play to keep reducing that lead.”