W&M Men’s Basketball Comes Back to Defeat JMU at the Buzzer, 72-70

Nathan Mann Hits Game-Winning Shot as Time Expires

02/11/06 11:54PM

HARRISONBURG, VA - William and Mary sophomore guard Nathan Mann (Overland Park, KS) put in the game-winning jumper from the left baseline at the buzzer, as the Tribe men’s basketball team came back to defeat James Madison, 72-70, tonight at the JMU Convocation Center.

The win is the Tribe’s third victory in its last five games and improves the Green and Gold’s record to 8-15 overall and 3-11 in the Colonial Athletic Association. The Dukes had their two-game winning streak snapped with the loss and fall to 5-18 overall and 2-13 in the CAA.

Senior center Brian Hutt (Denver, CO) led W&M with 13 points and tied for the team lead with five rebounds in just 14 minutes off the bench. Hutt had missed the Tribe’s last six games with a knee injury and was playing for the first time since Jan. 19. Junior forward Corey Cofield (Newton, MA) had 12 points and five rebounds and five-time CAA Rookie of the Week Calvin Baker (Newport News, VA) had 11 points, four assists and three rebounds. Senior guard Taylor Mokris (Charlotte, NC) and sophomore forward Laimis Kisielius (Vilnius, Lithuania) each had 10 points to round out the list of five Tribe players in double figures.

Daniel Freeman led all scorers with 25 points, Juwann James had 12 points and seven rebounds, while David Cooper had 11 points and six rebounds to lead the Dukes.

The Tribe, which trailed by as many as 11 points in the second half, was down by 10 with 7:04 remaining on a layup by James, before the Green and Gold began its comeback. Cofield scored five straight points to cut the lead to five, converting a three-point play and then tipping in an offensive rebound on the next possession to bring the score to 64-59 with 5:40 left. The two teams alternated baskets on each of their next two possessions, and the Tribe had possession still down by five when the ball worked its way to Hutt at the top of the key. Left wide open, Hutt took the three-point attempt and made it for his first career basket from long range, bringing the Tribe within two points, 68-66. After another missed shot by JMU, Mann attempted a basket that also missed, but Hutt put back his third offensive rebound to tie the game at 68 with just over a minute to play.

Again the two sides traded baskets, with Freeman briefly putting the Dukes ahead, before Mokris tied the game again with a jumper with just 37 seconds on the clock. JMU worked the clock down but turned it over and the Tribe regained possession. W&M took the ball down the court, with JMU knocking it out of bounds on the baseline with just 2.4 seconds remaining, setting up the Tribe’s game-winning play. Mann received the inbound pass from Baker on the left side, faking the shot and taking one dribble towards the hoop before putting up the winning shot that went through the basket as time expired.

W&M led by as many as six points on three separate occasions in the first 10 minutes of the contest, before JMU came back to take a one-point lead with 7:27 to go in the first period. The two teams battled back and forth from there, until the Dukes scored seven straight near the end of the half to pull ahead by five, 34-29, with 2:13 on the clock. Baker hit a pair of free throws with four seconds to go in the half to send the Tribe into the locker room trailing by three points, 34-31.

JMU out-rebounded W&M, 39-33, but was hurt by its 22 turnovers. The Tribe committed just 12 turnovers in the game, including just four in the second half of the game.

W&M returns to action on Wednesday, when the Tribe hosts Delaware in Kaplan Arena at 7:00 PM.

William and Mary Post-Game Quotes
William and Mary senior center Brian Hutt on his three-pointer late in the game
“For the past three weeks, since I’ve been hurt, I’ve kind of been just shooting threes in practice, just messing around. I’m going to be perfectly honest, when I shot that, I didn’t think it had a shot of going in. I though it was going hard off the backboard.”

“The team never quit tonight. That’s what we’ve been stressing in practice the last few weeks is never quitting. It was good to have a come-from-behind victory to give us some confidence going into these last couple games.”

Tribe head coach Tony Shaver
“Our staff might have been the only people in the gym that didn’t mind Brian taking that shot, because for four weeks that’s all he’s done is shoot threes since he hasn’t been able to practice. What a great lift he gave us. Watching him tonight is one of the great moments for me as a coach, because he had given us so much early in the season. What an improved player he is. He’s been out for these last few weeks and it’s been absolutely killing him inside that he couldn’t continue to play. He probably wasn’t even ready to play tonight, limping around out there. It’s one of the great moments in my career to watch him perform the way he did.”

“This is a great win. It was a pleasure to watch because we never quit and we kept battling. I felt there were a lot of things working against us. [JMU] shot the ball awfully well tonight, but for our guys to keep battling and believing in themselves was a big step for them.”

On the Tribe's final, game-winning play
“We had a couple options and Nathan was one of them. One option didn’t work, but we had space created for Nathan. The key was his composure there with 2.4 seconds remaining. We told Nathan, ‘You’ve got time for one dribble. You can’t go to the hole, probably, but you’ve got time for one dribble and a shot.’ He had a great ball fake and one big dribble and created a little bit of space. It really didn’t look good from the bench, but I sure was happy to see it go in.”

Box Score