Tribe Drops Close Road Game at Richmond

The Tribe outrebounded Richmond, 38-26, including a game-high seven from senior Chris Stratton

11/28/07 11:15PM

Williamsburg - The William and Mary men’s basketball team dropped a close, 58-55, road contest at Richmond on Wednesday night. The College rallied from a halftime deficit to take an eight-point lead midway through the second half, but could not overcome the 14 3-pointers from the Spiders. W&M fell to 1-4 on the season with all four losses coming on the road, while Richmond evened its ledger at 4-4.

Senior guard Nathan Mann led the Tribe in scoring with 13 points on 4-of-6 from 3-point range. Juniors Chris Darnell and Alex Smith each finished with 10 points apiece in the loss. Sophomore guard David Schneider turned in a solid all-around game for the College finishing with eight points, six rebounds and seven assists compared to only one turnover. For the second straight game, senior forward Chris Stratton provided an important spark off the bench with six points and a team-high and career-high seven rebounds, including five on the offensive end.

After trailing by five at the break, W&M opened up a five-point lead by scoring 13 of the opening 16 points of the second half. The Tribe pulled even at 34, before Darnell knocked down a trey from the left corner to give W&M the lead. Smith upped the cushion to five with a putback on his own offensive miss to give the Tribe a 39-34 advantage just 6:30 into the second half.

Darnell’s second 3-pointer of the second half pushed the W&M lead to eight, 44-36, at the 10:24 mark. The Tribe maintained the advantage and led 49-41 with 7:39 remaining in the second. Richmond came roaring back by way of the longball as the Spiders connected on four straight over a two-minute stretch to retake the lead.

After Kevin Smith knocked down a triple from the left wing out of the media timeout, it was David Gonzalvez who took over for the Spiders. Over a 1:14, the sophomore guard knocked down three straight 3-pointers from deep to turn a six-point W&M lead, 50-44, into a three-point UR advantage, 53-50, with 4:45 remaining in the contest.

The Tribe pulled to within two at 55-53 on a lay-up from Smith, but it was again Gonzalvez who hit his seventh 3-pointer of the game to push the UR lead to 58-53 with 1:46 remaining.

W&M was able to cut the deficit to a single possession with 51 seconds remaining as senior Laimis Kisielius found Darnell for a lay up. After W&M held UR on the defensive end, Kisielius tried to a driving lay-up but had it blocked out a bounds. Following a Tribe timeout with 9.8 seconds remaining, Kisielius took a 3-pointer from the right wing, but it hit off the front iron and UR got the rebound to clinch the victory

The Tribe dominated Richmond on the boards, outrebounding the Spiders, 38-26. W&M knocked down eight 3-point field goals and dished out 14 assists.

Each team started the game on runs as the Spiders hit back-to-back treys to open the game, before W&M responded with seven straight points. A Nathan Mann 3-pointer five minutes into the game put the Tribe on top 7-6. Richmond came right back with eight consecutive points capped by treys from Justin Harper and Gonzalvez to take a 14-7 lead/

Following the trey from Gonzalvez, the Tribe defense tighten and held the Spiders without a field goal for the next five minutes as the College mounted an 11-2 run to retake the lead. Schneider followed four straight Chris Stratton points with a 3-pointer from the right corner to give W&M an 18-16 lead with 6:06 remaining in the opening half.

Richmond answered right back as Ryan Butler drilled a three from the left wing, before five more UR points pushed the cushion to 24-18 with 3:03 remaining. W&M drew to within three at 29-26 following a 3-pointer and a free throw from Mann, but UR took a five-point cushion, 31-26, to the locker room on a Harper jumper with six seconds remaining.

The Tribe will have a week off before opening Colonial Athletic Association play on the road at Virginia Commonwealth on Wednesday, Dec. 5. Tip-off is slated for a 7:30 p.m. at the Alltel Pavillion at the Stuart C. Siegel Center. The contest will be broadcast over the Tribe Radio Network with Jay Colley, Bill McDonald and Charlie Woollum on the call. The broadcast can also be heard live over the Internet at TribeAthletics.com. The VCU-W&M contest will be streamed over the Web via the VCU Ram Cam. The streaming is available for a monthly charge of $8.95 at VCUAthletics.com.

Box Score