Tribe Hosts Fairfield on New Year’s Eve

W&M will look to avenge its loss to the Stags during last season's ESPN BracketBuster.

12/30/07 8:30PM

Williamsburg - The William and Mary men’s basketball team will host Fairfield on New Year’s Eve, Dec. 31, at 2 p.m. The contest will be the return game of the squads’ ESPN BracketBuster game from last season. It will mark the second of three games over a six-day stretch for the Tribe.

W&M is coming off a 70-63 loss at Hampton on Dec. 29. The sophomore duo of David Schneider and Danny Sumner led the Tribe with 14 points apiece, while senior Laimis Kisielius added 13 off the bench. Fairfield snapped a six-game losing streak with an 89-78 overtime victory over Saint Peter’s on Dec. 28. Jonathan Han led the Stags with 24 points and nine assists.

The game will be broadcast over the Tribe Radio Network with Jay Colley, Charlie Woollum and Bill McDonald on the call. The contest will be heard live over the Web at TribeAthletics.com with live stats to also be provided by the home of W&M sports.

For complete W&M men's basketball notes, click HERE.

Story lines
- W&M will look to avenge a 61-45 loss to Fairfield last season.

- The contest with the Stags will be head coach Tony Shaver’s second chance at victory No. 400. He tallied his 399th collegiate coaching victory against Montreat on Dec. 22.

The Tribe will look to continue its streak of outrebounding opponents. The College has outrebounded its counterpart in each of the last seven contests.

Scouting Fairfield
Fairfield ended a six-game losing streak with an 89-78 overtime victory over Saint Peter’s on Dec. 28. After opening the season with losses to Wake Forest and Holy Cross, the Stags won two straight over American and Sacred Heart before the six-game losing streak. Fairfield is 3-8 on the season under second-year head coach Ed Cooley. The Stags are currently 1-1 in Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference play.

Six Stags scored in double figures in the overtime win over Saint Peter’s led by the 24 points of junior Jonathan Han. The 6-0 guard also dished out nine assists in 43 minutes of action. Anthony Johnson notched his fourth double-double of the season with 14 points and 12 rebounds, while Herbie Allen, Marty O’Sullivan and Warren Edney each tallied 11 points in the victory. Fairfield shot a season-high 52.2 percent from the floor, while tallying a season-best 89 points in the MAAC win over Saint Peter’s. The Stags only average 64.4 points per game, while shooting 41.3 percent from the field on the year.

Han leads the way for Fairfield as the only player averaging in double digits at 12.5 per contest. Sophomore forward Greg Nero is second on the team at 9.8 points and 4.3 rebounds per game. Johnson averages nine points per game and a team-best 7.5 rebounds per contest. Han also tops the squad in assists at 5.7 per contest, while shooting a team-best 53 percent from the floor and 45.8 percent from 3-point range.

Fairfield Series History
Fairfield leads the all-time series with the Tribe at 2-0. Last season, the two teams faced off for only the second time in the ESPNU O’Reilly BracketBuster event at the Bridgeport Arena at Harbor Yard. The Stags notched a 61-45 victory over W&M in 2007 after winning the first game of the series in 1973. The trip to Williamsburg will be the first for Fairfield.

Sumner Finding His Way
Sophomore wing Danny Sumner saw limited playing time during his rookie season with the Tribe, but in the early going of the 2007-08 season, the Fairfax, Va., native has shown himself to be an impact player on the Tribe roster. He has progressively become more comfortable in the Tribe offense, while also developing a better understanding of the team’s various defensive alignments. Sumner has appeared in all 10 games for the Tribe. On four different occasions, he has been the Tribe’s overall leading scorer, including its most recent contests against Montreat and Hampton.
This season, Sumner is averaging 9.1 points per game, which ranks third on the squad. He is the College’s most efficient scorer, while knocking down 53.6 percent of his shots in only 17.9 minutes per game. With his numbers projected over 40 minutes, Sumner leads the Tribe regulars with a 20.2 points per game average. He is also adding 2.8 rebounds per game, while shooting 38.1 percent from 3-point range.

... Continuing to impress
After coming to W&M as a herald recruit, sophomore Danny Sumner is starting to make his presence felt as an impact scorer for the College. While the Fairfax, Va., native ranks third on the team in scoring at 9.1 points per game, he has made an even greater impact recently. Over the Tribe’s last five games, Sumner leads W&M in scoring at 12.4 points per game. After coming off the bench in the Tribe’s first eight games of the year, Sumner has started the last two games and responded by leading W&M in scoring with 16 against Montreat and 14 at Hampton. Earlier this season, he scored a career-high 18 points at Wagner.

Chasing 400
W&M head coach Tony Shaver took another step closer to the 400-win mark with the Tribe’s victory over Montreat on Dec. 22. The victory was the 399th of Shaver’s collegiate coaching career, leaving him just one win shy of joining the 400-win club. Shaver is in his 22nd season patrolling the sidelines in college basketball. Prior to his stint at W&M, he spent 17 seasons as the head man at Hampden-Sydney College in Virginia.

Senior Statesmen
Senior captains Nathan Mann and Laimis Kisielius have long been fixtures in the W&M lineup and are slowly working their way into the ranks of Tribe longevity. Both players already rank among the top 20 in career minutes played for the Green and Gold and before their careers are up at the end of the 2007-08, they could rank among the top five in both career games and minutes played for the Tribe.

Mann has appeared in 97 games and played 2,424 minutes during his W&M career. His career minutes played ranks 17th in school history. Kisielius has appeared in 95 games for the Tribe, logging 2,463 minutes in the Green and Gold. His minutes played rank 15th in the program’s annals.

With 19 remaining regular season games, if Mann and Kisielius play in every contest for the College, they would rank second and third in career games played for the Tribe at 116 and 114, respectively. The duo could also join an elite list of only four W&M players to finish their career with 3,000 minutes played.

On the Boards
After being outrebounded in each of its first three games this season, the College has turned the tables and held the rebounding advantage in each of its last seven contests and hold a 3.2 advantage on the glass this season. Over the seven-game stretch, the Tribe has outrebounded its opponents by more than eight boards per game. W&M has averaged 39.6 rebounds per game, compared to just 31.1 for its opponents.

The rebounding for W&M has been a collective effort for most of the season. Over the 10 games in 2007, seven different Tribe players have led the College in rebounding. Five different Tribe players have led W&M in rebounding on multiple occasions as sophomores David Schneider and Danny Sumner, juniors Peter Stein and Chris Darnell and senior Nathan Mann have led the Green and Gold on the boards in two games each. Six different W&M players are averaging over three rebounds a game this year, while over the last seven games, eight different Tribe players have averaged at least three boards per contest. Darnell and Schneider lead W&M in rebounding at 5.3 and 5.2 per contest, respectively. Darnell’s total is 15th in the CAA, while Schneider’s is tied for 17th.

Against Montreat, the Tribe double its opponent on the boards, pulling down a season-high 48 rebounds compared to just 24 for the Cavaliers. The 48 rebounds marked the most for a W&M team since the College pulled down 51 boards in an 89-55 win over Maine on Nov. 18, 2005. W&M followed that up with 45 boards at Hampton. W&M has pulled down 45 or more rebounds under head coach Tony Shaver on 10 occasions. The Tribe is 8-2 in those contests.