Tribe Notches Fourth Straight CAA Road Victory

W&M shot 64.7 percent in the second half to down James Madison, 70-67, on Jan. 30.

01/30/08 11:00PM

Harrisonburg, Va. - The William and Mary men’s basketball team continued its winning ways on the road in the Colonial Athletic Association with a 70-67 victory at James Madison on Wednesday night. W&M shot 64.7 percent (11-of-17) from the field and connected on 19-of-25 from the foul in the second half to overcome a halftime deficit for the fifth time this season in knocking off the Dukes. The Tribe notched its fourth straight CAA road victory, while improving to 11-9 overall and 7-3 in league play.

Senior Nathan Mann was once again a thorn in the side of the Dukes, scoring a game-high 19 points on 5-of-6 from 3-point range. The sophomore duo of David Schneider and Danny Sumner finished with 13 and 12 points, respectively, in the victory. Senior Laimis Kisielius finished with nine points in becoming the 29th player in W&M history to surpass the 1,000-point mark. Sumner finished with a team-high six rebounds, while junior Chris Darnell had a team-best four assists.

The Tribe struggled to overcome a 26-24 halftime deficit in the early stages of the second stanza. W&M pulled even with the Dukes on three occasions at 26, 31 and 34 in the opening four minutes of play. James Madison answered each time and took a 36-34 on a Juwann James steal and fastbreak dunk that gave the Dukes a two-point lead at the 14:14 mark.

It would be the final lead of the game for the Dukes though, as W&M went on a 15-3 run to seize advantage. Darnell gave the Tribe the lead for good at 37-36, converting all three free throws after being fouled by James in the right corner on a trey attempt.

A deep 3-pointer from the right side by freshman John Sexton gave the Tribe a 44-38 lead with 9:38 remaining in the game. After JMU connected on a free throw, the Tribe scored five straight points to push its lead into double digits for the first time and only time on the evening. A Steven Hess lay-up off a dish from Schneider was followed by a triple from Mann to give the W&M a 49-39 advantage with 7:57 left.

JMU would not go away though, pulling within three via an 8-1 run. Terrence Carter drilled a 3-pointer from the left wing, before a Heiden Ratner free throw cut the Tribe cushion to 50-47 with six minutes remaining in the contest.

The Dukes cut the deficit to two points on a pair of free throws from Pierre Curtis with 2:48 remaining. It was again Mann who answered the call with another dagger of a shot against James Madison. With the shot clock running down, the Overland Park, Kan., native stepped up and drilled his fifth trey of the game from the right side, pushing the lead back at five, 57-52. After a Peter Stein steal gave W&M possession, Mann was fouled and knocked down a pair of freebies to push the lead to seven, 59-52.

Back-to-back buckets in the paint by James cut the W&M lead back to a single possession, 59-56, with 1:37 remaining in the contest. The Dukes were able to cut the deficit to two points on three occasions over the final 1:30 of the contest. The last time came after a pair of Curtis free throws, closing the gap to 69-67 with 13 seconds left.

On the inbounds play, the Dukes fouled Sumner. The Fairfax, Va., native missed the first of two from the charity stripe, but calmly stepped back to the mark and drilled the second to keep the W&M lead at three, 70-67. The Duke had a pair of 3-point attempts in the closing seven seconds, but both chances fell harmlessly off the rim with the final chance being nabbed by Darnell to secure the W&M victory.

W&M finished the game shooting a sizzling 66.7 percent from 3-point range, while drilling 10 treys. It marked the sixth time this season that W&M has connected on double digit 3-pointers, and it was the first time since the 2000-01 season that the Tribe shot better than 60 percent from 3-point range. For the game, the College shot 48.8 percent (20-of-41) from the field, while drilling 20-of-28 from the free throw line (71.4 percent).

After missing nine of its first 10 chances from the floor, the Tribe caught fire to take a seven-point advantage in the opening half of play. Back-to-back 3-pointers from Mann broke a 7-7 tie and gave W&M a 13-7 advantage. A Schneider free throw made it a seven-point Tribe run and the College led 14-7 with eight minutes remaining in the opening half.

JMU rallied with five straight points on a trey from Stephen Kendall and a lay-up from Carter to close the gap to 16-15 at the 6:09 mark of the first half. After a Sexton 3-pointer pushed the W&M lead back to four, 19-15, the Dukes used an 11-2 run to take its largest lead of the contest at 26-21 with under two minutes remaining in the opening half.

A jumper by Kendall gave the Dukes the lead at 22-21, and Abdulai Jalloh nailed a trifecta from the right side to give JMU a five-point cushion with 1:58 remaining in the half. Kisielius answered with a triple from the right corner to cut the deficit to 26-24 before the intermission. The trey with 17 seconds remaining in the opening half was Kisielius’ 1,000th career point.

The Tribe returns to action when it hosts UNC Wilmington on Saturday, Feb. 2. It will be the battle for second-place at Kaplan Arena as the two teams along with George Mason enter the weekend in a second-place tie at 7-3 in league play. Tip-off for the Tribe-Seahawk tilt is slated for 7 p.m. Fans can catch the action on the Tribe Radio Network with Jay Colley, Bill McDonald and Charlie Woollum on the call. The broadcast along with live stats will be available at TribeAthletics.com.

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