W&M Travels to James Madison

The Tribe will face the Dukes for the second time this season on Jan. 30 at 7 p.m.

01/29/08 11:00AM

Williamsburg - The William and Mary men’s basketball team will look to get back on the winning track when it travels to James Madison on Wednesday, Jan. 30. Tip-off is slated for 7 p.m. in Harrisonburg, Va., at the JMU Convocation Center. It will be the second meeting between the two squads this season as W&M notched a come-from-behind 69-66 win on Jan. 5.

The Tribe had its six-game winning streak snapped by Old Dominion, 72-59, on Jan. 26. W&M canned 10 3-point field goals against the Monarchs, and despite a 37-36 halftime advantage, the College could not overcome the rebounding and second-half shooting of ODU. Senior Laimis Kisielius earned CAA Player of the Week honors after tallying a career-high 26 points against the Monarchs. James Madison dropped its fourth straight game, 73-64, at Towson on Jan. 26.

Fans can catch the action over the Tribe Radio Network with Jay Colley, Bill McDonald and Charlie Woollum on the call. The broadcast will also be available over the Web at TribeAthletics.com. Live video for the W&M-JMU game will also be available at the Duke’s Web site via the MadiZone. The cost for the live video and audio for Wednesday night’s game is $7.95. For more information visit JMUSports.com.

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

Story lines
- W&M has won seven straight against James Madison and is 8-2 against the Dukes under head coach Tony Shaver.

- Senior forward Laimis Kisielius is averaging 21 points per game over the Tribe last three games.

Kisielius is only eight points shy of becoming the 29th player in W&M history to score 1,000 career points.

Scouting James Madison
After opening the year with its best start since the 1986-86 season at 9-3, the Dukes have struggled as of late, dropping six of its last seven games. JMU downed UNCW, 93-74, following its loss to the Tribe on Jan. 12, but have since lost its last four contests. The losing streak started with a loss at Old Dominion (79-52), before falling at home to George Mason (96-75) and Delaware (66-65). Most recently, James Madison dropped a 73-64 decision at Towson on Jan. 26. JMU is 10-9 overall on the season and 3-6 in CAA player under the direction of fourth-year head coach Dean Keener.

In the loss at Towson, Juwann James paced the Dukes with 23 points on 9-of-15 shooting from the floor to go along with nine rebounds. St. Joseph’s transfer Abdulai Jalloh chipped in a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds, while freshman Heiden Ratner round out the double digit scorers at 10. Towson shot 50 percent from the floor to outdistance the Dukes, but JMU held a 43-30 advantage on the glass, including 23 offensive rebounds.

When the Tribe and Dukes faced off in Williamsburg, Ratner and James led JMU in scoring with 14 points apiece. James added 11 rebounds for a double-double, while Jalloh and Terrance Carter each chipped in double digits with 13 and 10 points, respectively.

Jalloh tops the Dukes in scoring on the season with 14.6 points per game, followed by Carter at 14.4. Carter also tops the squad in rebounding at 7.4 per game. James and sophomore Pierre Curtis round out the double-digit scorers for JMU at 12.6 and 11.1 points, respectively. James shoots 58 percent from the floor and pulls down 5.9 rebounds per game.

James Madison is still the top scoring team in the CAA at 75.9 points per game, while also ranking among the leaders in field goal percentage (46.4 percent) and free throw percentage (73.1). On the flip side, the Dukes are among the worst in the league in field goal percentage defense (46.4 percent), 3-point field goal percentage defense (35.6 percent) and scoring defense (74.6 points per game).

James Madison Series History
James Madison leads the all-time series with the Tribe at 39-31, but W&M has owned the recent history. The College has won 10 of the last 12 in the series, including a seven-game winning streak dating back to the 2004-05 season. The Dukes hold the all-time advantage in Harrisonburg at 18-11. Last season, W&M downed JMU, 71-56, in Harrisonburg. Four Tribe players scored in double figures at JMU last season, while the Tribe shot 54 percent overall and 76.2 percent in the second half. Peter Stein had 17 points, while Nathan Mann and David Schneider finished with 14 and 11 points, respectively. Earlier this season, W&M overcame an 11-point deficit with 8:55 remaining to claim a 69-66 victory over the Dukes. Nathan Mann led the way for the Tribe with 18 points, while Danny Sumner and David Schneider finished with 17 and 16 points, respectively. The College shot 55 percent from the floor in the victory over the Dukes.

Kisielius Earns CAA Player of the WEek Laurels
Senior forward Laimis Kisielius has had the hot hand for the Tribe recently and earned Colonial Athletic Association Player of the Week for his efforts on Jan. 28. The Vilnius, Lithuania native averaged 23 points per game in the Tribe contests at Drexel on Jan. 23 and versus Old Dominion on Jan. 26. He became the first W&M player to earn conference player of the week honors since Corey Cofield won the accolade in November of 2004.

Along with his 23 points per game over the two-game stretch, Kisielius shot 55.2 percent (16-of-29) from the floor and 56.3 percent (9-of-16) from 3-point range. He also added three assists and 1.5 steals per game during the week. Kisielius has put up impressive numbers over his last three games, while leading the Tribe in scoring during all three contests. He is averaging 21 points per game over the stretch, while connecting on 50 percent from the field (21-of-42) and from 3-point range (11-of-22).

He started the streak of impressive play against Towson when he led the Tribe with 17 points and nine rebounds on Jan. 19. In the Tribe’s overtime victory at Drexel, Kisielius finished with 20 points to go along with a 4-of-6 effort from 3-point range. He canned back-to-back trifectas to start the overtime period, staking the Tribe to an early five-point lead. Kisielius turned in a career scoring night on Saturday against Old Dominion. The 6-8, 225-pounder finished with 26 points on 9-of-16 shooting from the floor. He connected on a career-high five 3-pointers in the victory.

Kisielius had three assists against Drexel and ODU to bring his career total to 200. He now ranks 18th on the Tribe’s career assists list. Following his career effort against ODU, Kisielius is only eight points shy of the 1,000-point milestone. He will become the 29th player in the 103-year history of Tribe basketball to score 1,000 points in his career.

Fans in the Stands
The fans of Williamsburg are starting to get behind the Tribe, and it is showing in the Green and Gold’s attendance figures recently. On Jan. 26, a crowd of 5,284 watched W&M battle Old Dominion. It marked the largest crowd at Kaplan Arena since 5,605 witnessed the College down Richmond, 73-70, on Feb. 7, 1998. The game against ODU is a growing trend for the College as the Tribe has averaged 3,735 fans over the last three home CAA games and a total of 11,207 people have come through the turnstiles at Kaplan Arena. Last season, the Tribe had its highest average attendance in a decade.

Mann-ing Up Against JMU
No Tribe player has enjoyed more success against James Madison than senior guard Nathan Mann, and the Dukes will not mind when the Tribe tri-captain graduates from the College in May. Over his career, Mann has averaged 10.9 points per game against James Madison, while also knocking down 41.7 percent from 3-point range. Over the Tribe’s last three victories over JMU, Mann has hit for 17.7 points per game, while shooting a sizzling 60 percent (12-of-20) from 3-point range.

In two of the last three games, he has tallied team and game high scoring honors with 21 points on Jan. 31, 2007 in Williamsburg and most recently with 18 on Jan. 8, 2008 also in Kaplan Arena. The last time, Mann visited the JMU Convocation Center he scored 14 points in the Tribe’s 71-56 win. As a sophomore in 2006, Mann only scored five points at JMU, but none bigger than the two points on his baseline jumper at the buzzer that gave the Tribe a 72-70 victory.

Another Season of Firsts
Last season, the Tribe enjoyed a historic and memorable season achieving numerous milestones that had not been seen in Williamsburg in some time. While the 2007-08 version of W&M hoops got off to a slow start, it has not derailed the number of benchmarks from coming to fruition as the Green and Gold have caught fire recently. Here is a look at some of the firsts in recent Tribe history:

- The Tribe won its first-ever game in the Ted Constant Center against Old Dominion on Jan. 5. The 70-61 triumph was the first for W&M in Norfolk since the 1997-98 season.

- With its overtime victory over Drexel, the Tribe not only picked up its first win over the Dragons in Philadelphia, but the program’s first-ever win as a whole in the City of Brotherly Love. It was also the first W&M win in the state of Pennsylvania since the 1985-86 season.

- W&M had a six-game CAA winning streak from Jan. 5 through Jan. 23. It marked only the third such winning streak in Tribe history and the first since the 1997-98 campaign.

- The Tribe’s victory at Drexel in overtime was the first W&M victory on the road in overtime since downing George Mason in Fairfax, Va., on Feb. 16, 1998.

By the Narrowest of Margins
The sign of a good team is finding a way to pull out a victory no matter the cost. The Tribe has displayed the ability to snatch victory from the jaws of defeat in 2008. The Green and Gold is starting to show its mantra as a team with a great will to win. W&M has won four of its last six games by three points of fewer. In three of those contests, the Tribe overcame double-digit second-half deficits to tally victories.

W&M defeated James Madison by three on Jan. 9 after trailing by 11 points with 8:55 remaining. The College knocked off Georgia State by two points on Jan. 12, overcoming a 16-point deficit with 15:14 left. W&M downed Northeastern, 55-53, on Jan. 16 rallying from a 12-point halftime deficit. Most recently, the College pulled out a one-point overtime win at Drexel on Jan. 23.

The fours victories by three or fewer points equal the Tribe’s total from the previous four seasons under head coach Tony Shaver. W&M’s ability to win close games in 2008 is just another in the long list of valuable steps the programs has taken under Shaver.