W&M Men’s Basketball Tops Towson, 83-65

Corey Cofield Leads Four Tribe Scorers in Double Figures With 19

01/26/05 9:58PM

WILLIAMSBURG, VA - William and Mary sophomore forward Corey Cofield (Newton, MA) scored a game-high 19 points, including 10 in the final six minutes, as the Tribe pulled away from Towson for an 83-65 victory in Colonial Athletic Association men’s basketball action Wednesday night at William and Mary Hall.

The victory, which snapped a seven-game losing streak, was the College’s first league win of the season, as it improves to 1-7 in the CAA and 5-12 overall. Towson falls to 5-13 overall, 2-6 in the conference.
Cofield was an efficient 5-for-6 from the field on the night and shot 9-of-11 at the foul line for his 10th double-digit scoring game of the season. One of four in double-figures for the Tribe, Cofield’s hot hand was just one of many offensive weapons, as W&M shot a season-high 52.1% (25-for-48) from the field.

The second half started with a bang, as Cofield beat the Tigers down the floor in transition for a dunk that extended a four-point halftime lead to 41-35. After Towson’s Lawerence Hamm answered with a two-point field goal, W&M freshman forward Laimis Kisielius (Vilnius, Lithuania) scored the Tribe’s next six points to push the lead to nine, 47-38, with 16:07 remaining.

The Tigers’ Mike Green, who scored a team-high 16 points, cut the deficit to five with back-to-back buckets, before consecutive three-pointers from freshmen Nathan Mann (Overland Park, KS) and Edwin Ofori Attah (Berlin, Germany) made it 53-42 with 13:39 left.

Towson cut it to five again, 57-52, behind free throws from Hamm at the 8:23 mark, but that was as close as the Tigers would get the rest of the way, as Cofield responded with another dunk and Ofori Attah drained his second trey to put the Tribe back up 10, 62-52 with 7:44 remaining.

Cofield pushed the lead to 12, 69-57, with a turnaround jumper at the 5:14 mark, and after Hamm answered with a layin, Cofield was again strong in the post with a jump-hook that made it 71-59 with 4:36 to go. Ofori Attah’s reverse layup on the Tribe’s next trip down the floor after a Towson score kept the lead at 12, before Cofield put an exclamation point on it with another dunk, bringing the lead to 14, 75-61, with 2:38 remaining.

Kisielius (2-for-2) and Cofield (4-for-4) drained six straight free throws that ballooned the lead to 81-63 less than a minute later, and junior Hawley Smith’s (Jacksonville, FL) put-back with five seconds remaining set the final margin at 83-65.

Ofori Attah finished with 14 points, his first double-figure scoring game since dropping 21 at James Madison on January 12, while Kisielius wound up with 14 and Mann added 10 to join Cofield in double-figures. Mann dished out a team-high six assists, and Ofori Attah pulled down five rebounds. Cofield added six boards, three assists and three steals.

Senior guard Nick D’Antoni (Myrtle Beach, SC) drained three three-pointers in the first half, as the Tribe shot a blistering 54.5% (12-for-22) from the floor, including 6-for-12 from behind the arc in the opening 20 minutes to take a 39-35 advantage at the break. Sophomore Brian Hutt (Denver, CO) also had a strong first half, as he came off the bench to collect four points, three rebounds and two assists.

W&M returns to action on Saturday afternoon, as it travels to George Mason for a 2:00 PM tip that will be featured as the CAA SunTrust Game of the Week. The game can be seen live on Comcast SportsNet.


Box Score



ost-Game Quotes from W&M Head Coach Tony Shaver
“I was very disappointed in the first half—not in the score, but in our effort. We didn’t come out with the same intensity and the same fire that we’ve had early in the last couple of weeks. The difference in the game was that we had five hustle plays and we drew three charges. We’ve got to do those things with more consistency as a ball club.”

“We shot awfully well in the first half, but it was a little bit of fool’s gold. That’s not always going to go your way. We did a much better job in the second half getting the ball inside, getting to the foul line. Almost all of our perimeter shots in the second half came from inside-outside action. In the first half it was all perimeter-oriented, we were making shots, which is nice to see. In the second half we did a much better job of getting those shots because we were getting the ball inside first.”