Tribe Advances To Title game of W&M Tip-off Classic with win over Hartford

Ofori Attah, Cofield and Smith power Tribe to Season-Opening Win

11/19/04 11:50PM

WILLIAMSBURG, VA - Freshman guard Edwin Ofori Attah (Davidson, NC) scored a team-high 22 points in his first collegiate game to lead four Tribe players in double-figures, as the College of William and Mary men’s basketball team defeated the University of Hartford, 84-71, in the second game of the William and Mary Tip-off Classic at William and Mary Hall night.

By winning its season opener, the Tribe advances to tomorrow night’s championship game at 8:30 PM against Radford University, which won the tournament opener, 72-71, over Yale. The Hawks (0-1) will face Yale in the 6:00 PM consolation game Saturday.

Ofori Attah shot 50% from the floor (7-for-14), including 4-of-6 from behind the three-point line, coming off the bench in his first college game.

Sophomore forward Corey Cofield (Wellesley, MA), the 2004 CAA Rookie of the Year, picked up where he left off last season, scoring 20 points on 7-for-12 shooting from the floor and sharing team-high honors with six rebounds. Cofield added two assists and a block and was a perfect 6-for-6 from the foul line. He capped a strong first-half effort with a put-back lay-in in the closing seconds of the opening period to give W&M a 32-27 lead at the break.

The Tribe quickly turned a five-point halftime lead into an 18-point advantage in the first six minutes of the second half, using a 13-1 run to extend the lead to 52-34 with just under 15 minutes remaining. The spurt was capped by three consecutive treys, the first two by Ofori Attah, and the last by junior transfer Hawley Smith (Jacksonville, FL).

After the Hawks cut the deficit to 14, an Ofori Attah free throw and a Cofield three-point play pushed the lead back to 18 with 10:48 remaining. The W&M lead grew to 22, its biggest of the game, just over a minute later, as Cofield, junior guard Taylor Mokris (Charlotte, NC) and Ofori Attach connected on six straight opportunities from the foul line, giving the Tribe a 64-42 lead.

Hartford trimmed the Tribe advantage to 11 on back-to-back three-pointers from junior guard Aaron Cook, cutting the deficit to 65-54 with 6:12 left on the clock, but a pair of free throws from Mokris and junior guard Adam Dutton (Winchester, VA) lay up pushed the lead back to 15.

The Hawks got as close as 10 with 2:07 left, but another pair of Mokris free throws and two-straight Ofori Attah field goals put the game out of reach at 79-66 with 50 seconds remaining.

Joining Ofori Attah and Cofield in double-figures were Smith and freshman forward Laimis Kisielius (Vilnius, Lithuania). Smith poured in a career-high 19 points, which included a 9-for-12 performance from the charity stripe, and pulled down six boards. Kisielius was 3-of-5 from the floor and 4-for-4 from the stripe for 10 points in his first collegiate game.

Mokris did all of his damage from the foul line, going 6-for-6 on the evening. As a team, the Tribe shot 76.2% from the foul line (32-for-42), including 23-for-27 in the second half.

Cook paced the Hawks with 25 points on 8-of-17 shooting from the floor and added six rebounds and four assists.


Box Score


Quotes from W&M Head Coach Tony Shaver

“It’s a great day. We had some young players out there and you really and truly don’t know what to expect. We played like a young basketball team quite a bit tonight, but our effort was tremendous. We played really well together and that’s important to our success. Offensively, we’ve clearly got to get a lot better—we made far too many turnovers tonight. We got better shots the second half, but it’s a young, impatient team that hungry, and those things will get better. As long as our effort and chemistry is there, we’ll improve on the offensive end.”

On the play of junior Hawley Smith
“He’s tremendous. When we recruited Hawley—he was the first guy we signed—this is what we hoped to get out of him. His effort, his leadership, the little things he does in the game to make our team better are special. Every time we needed a big offensive rebound, he made the play, he’s a great defender, he just does a great job at all the little things that mean so much over the course of the game. He’s a special kid and I can promise you that we’re happy he’s in a W&M uniform right now.”