W&M Men’s Basketball Loses at George Mason, 81-58

Freshman Calvin Baker Leads Tribe with 15 Points

01/26/06 10:31PM

FAIRFAX, VA - William and Mary jumped out to a seven-point lead less than seven minutes into the game, but George Mason came back, taking a 10-point lead at the break and outscoring the Tribe 21-6 down the stretch to take an 81-58 Colonial Athletic Association men’s basketball win tonight at the Patriot Center.

The loss drops W&M’s record to 5-13 overall and 0-9 in CAA play, while GMU improves to 14-5 overall and holds onto a share of first place in the conference with an 8-2 league record.

The Tribe scored the first six points of the game on a pair of three-pointers by freshman guard Calvin Baker (Newport News, VA) and sophomore forward Laimis Kisielius (Vilnius, Lithuania) and led 16-9 with 13:09 on the clock with a free throw by junior forward Corey Cofield (Newton, MA). However, GMU went on a 9-2 run, tying the score at 18 with 9:30 to play in the period on a three-pointer by Tim Burns. The two teams battled back and forth until the Patriots ran off seven straight points in the final 67 seconds, including five by Folarin Campbell, to take a 38-28 lead at halftime.

Four points by Baker and three by Cofield helped lead the Tribe to a 10-2 run in the first three minutes of the second half, to put the score at 40-38. The Patriots gradually extended their lead from there, going ahead by 14, 61-47, on a three by Lamar Butler with 8:07 remaining. A three-pointer and a pair of free throws by Baker brought the Tribe within nine points, 61-52, with 7:20 on the clock. However, the Patriots exploded at that point, running off 13 unanswered points for a commanding 74-52 lead with less than four minutes remaining. W&M sophomore guard Nathan Mann (Overland Park, KS) knocked down a pair of three-pointers for the Tribe’s final points of the game, as GMU took the contest, 81-58.

The Patriots shot an impressive 65.9 percent (29-44) from the field in the game, including 68.0 percent (17-25) in the second half. W&M was held to 39.3 percent (22-56) shooting in the game.

Baker led the Tribe with 15 points, along with four assists and four rebounds, while Cofield scored 11 points, while pulling down a team-high five rebounds. GMU’s Jai Lewis led all scorers with 22 points to go with 11 rebounds, while Tony Skinn had 12 points and Lamar Butler added 10 for the Patriots.

W&M’s next game will be Saturday at 2:00 PM, when the Tribe hosts James Madison in Kaplan Arena.

Post-Game Quotes from William and Mary Head Coach Tony Shaver
“The game really got away from us in the last five minutes, but we felt all along that we had a shot at this thing.”

“They are really one explosive team. I really felt that we were pretty good defensively at times, but they just flat out make shots.”

“I know we’ve got a lot of young kids out there—and you can see it in their eyes tonight—it’s hard to ask for a lot more effort from them, and the desire is certainly there, but we always have that little spurt [where the opponents pull ahead] and explosive, great teams are going to take advantage of that against you. I thought part of it during that stretch we got a little bit quick on our shots, they were pressing us and forcing the tempo a little bit. You want kids playing with confidence, you want them playing free and easy on the offensive end, but we took some bad shots, and that led to some fast-break layups on the other end.”

Box Score