Tribe Men’s Basketball Holds Off Hampton to Win 60-51

12/30/04 11:27PM

WILLIAMSBURG, VA - Junior forward Hawley Smith (Jacksonville, FL) scored 13 points on 6-of-8 shooting, and senior guard Nick D’Antoni (Myrtle Beach, SC) added 12 as William and Mary defeated in-state rival Hampton, 60-51, Thursday night in men’s basketball action at William and Mary Hall.

The victory snapped a three-game losing streak for the Tribe, which improved to 4-5 overall. The Pirates fell to 3-9 with the loss.

Smith keyed a strong second-half effort for the College, scoring 10 of his team-high 13 points in the second frame, while D’Antoni buried a key three-pointer and converted all six of his opportunities from the foul line down the stretch to ice the win.

With the Tribe clinging to a five-point lead, 42-37, with just under six minutes remaining, freshman forward Laimis Kisielius (Vilnius, Lithuania) pulled down an offensive rebound and found D’Antoni wide open at the top of the arc, resulting in D’Antoni’s second triple of the half and an eight-point W&M lead.

The Pirates cut the deficit to seven on a free throw from Bruce Brown with 4:35 left, but a three-pointer from freshman guard Nathan Mann (Overland Park, KS) on the Tribe’s next possession pushed the advantage to 10, 48-38.

D’Antoni sank his first two attempts from the charity stripe to increase the lead to 12 with 3:38 remaining, before back-to-back buckets from Smith, including a break-away dunk, gave the Tribe a 54-41 advantage with 1:23 remaining.

Hampton guard Junior Pehoua nailed four three-pointers in the final 1:31 of the contest, but D’Antoni (4-of-4) and Mann (2-of-2) answered with six-straight free throws to hold off the Pirates’ late charge. Pehoua canned his final trey with 15 seconds left on the clock to set the final margin, 60-51.

Sophomore forward Corey Cofield (Newton, MA), who was held scoreless in his previous two games, chipped in seven points and a game-high 10 rebounds for the Tribe, before fouling out with 2:47 remaining. Mann wound up with nine points, including a 4-for-6 effort at the line, while Kisielius added eight points, three rebounds and three assists. The unsung hero for W&M in the game was senior guard Reid Markham (Louisville, KY), who scored just four points, but contributed with five assists (against just one turnover), two steals and four rebounds, including a pair of crucial offensive boards in the second half.

The Tribe converted 9-of-11 (81.8%) attempts from the foul line in the second half and shot 50% (12-for-24) from the field, to the Pirates’ 7-for-19 (36.8%) effort from the charity stripe and 9-for-24 (37.5%) performance from the floor.

W&M returns to action Sunday, January 2 at 1:00 PM in a regionally televised game at North Carolina, currently ranked as high as fourth in the nation.

Box Score


Post-Game Quotes from William and Mary Head Coach Tony Shaver
On the play of senior guard Reid Markham
“He was the key to our win tonight. We put him in the starting lineup, he gives us stability, he does what he’s asked to do. He had five assists and just one turnover with four rebounds—he was the key to the victory. Reid’s a guy we expected a lot out of coming into this season and then he started the year with an injury, but he’s a guy that we’re really happy to see getting healthy and getting his legs under him. This team needs stability and Reid gave us stability tonight and I’m very proud of him.