|
W&M Men’s Basketball Falls at Old Dominion
Tribe Rookie Edwin Ofori Attah Leads all Scorers with 18 Points
12/04/04 11:59PM
NORFOLK, VA - William and Mary freshman forward Edwin Ofori Attah (Davidson, NC) came off the bench for a game-high 18 points, but it was not enough, as the Tribe men’s basketball team lost to Old Dominion, 69-56, tonight at the Ted Constant Convocation Center.
Following the first Colonial Athletic Association game of the year for both teams, W&M’s record drops to 3-3, while the Monarchs, picked in the preseason by both the coaches and the media to win the conference, improve to 6-1.
Neither team led by more than six points in the back-and-forth first half, that featured four ties and seven lead changes. Both sides started off slowly, combining for just 24 points through the first 10 minutes, with W&M tying the score at 12 on a pair of free throws by rookie forward Laimis Kisielius (Vilnius, Lithuania). ODU scored six straight from there, ending with a layup by John Morris, for an 18-12 lead, but the Tribe used an 11-2 run, led by seven points by Ofori Attah, to take a 23-20 lead with 3:48 left in the half. The Monarchs took a 31-27 lead with 25 seconds left on a layup by CAA Preseason Player of the Year Alex Loughton, but a layup with three seconds left in the half by W&M sophomore forward Corey Cofield (Newton, MA), the 2004 CAA Rookie of the Year, cut led Monarchs’ lead to just two points, 31-29, at the intermission.
ODU opened the second period with a 13-6 run, including six points from Arnaud Dahi, to go up 44-37 less than five minutes into the half. The Tribe battled back to close within three, 44-41, on buckets by Ofori Attah and Cofield, but that would be as close as the College would get, as the Monarchs used the next five minutes to take a 59-45 advantage, eventually leading by as many as 16 points, before closing out the 13-point, 69-56, win.
The Tribe out-rebounded ODU, 41-37, and shot .458 (22-48) from the floor, compared to a .373 (25-67) performance from the Monarchs. However, the Tribe was ultimately done in by a season-high 23 turnovers, compared to just seven giveaways for ODU. This was also the first game all season in which the Tribe committed more fouls than its opponent, as the Green and Gold was whistled for a season-high 24 fouls, compared to just 19 for ODU.
Along with Ofori Attah’s 18 points, Cofield also scored in double figures for W&M with 13 points (including 11 in the second half), while pulling down a team-high eight rebounds. Loughton and Isaiah Hunter led the Monarchs with 14 points each, followed by Dahi with 13 and Kiah Thomas, who added 12.
W&M now faces a 15-day layoff—the longest in the CAA—for final exams, before returning to action on December 20 at UNC Greensboro.
Box score
Post-Game Quotes From W&M Head Coach Tony Shaver
“I just told the guys that I’m very proud of them. I really and truly believe that if we play with that kind of effort, that kind of intensity, that kind of desire, whether it happens this year or next, we’re going to have a good basketball team at William and Mary.
“The key to the game was turnovers. We just can’t continue to turn the all over the way we are. [ODU is] very athletic, very quick, our point guards are struggling with the ball a little bit, and I’ve got to do a better as a coach, maybe putting them into a situation where they have a little bit easier plays to make. But I’m very proud of their effort.”
|