All-Around Play Gives Tribe Victory over Hofstra

Senior Nathan Mann led the Tribe with a season-high 22 points, including a 5-of-7 effort from 3-point range.

02/06/08 11:00PM

Williamsburg - The William and Mary men’s basketball team continued its winning ways with a 74-62 victory over Hofstra on Wednesday night at Kaplan Arena. The College shot 52.9 percent from the floor, dishing out 21 assists and drilling 11 3-pointers to record its first victory over the Pride under the direction of head coach Tony Shaver. W&M upped its ledger to 13-9 overall and 9-3 in the CAA, while Hofstra dropped to 7-15 on the year and 4-8 in the league. The victory was also the Tribe’s ninth in the last 10 games.

Senior guard Nathan Mann continued his stellar final campaign in a Tribe uniform leading all scorers with 22 points on 5-of-7 from 3-point range. He also pulled down a team-high five rebounds and dished out three assists compared to zero turnovers. Fellow classmate Laimis Kisielius turned in an impressive stat line as well with 13 points to go along career-high efforts in assists (7) and steals (5). Sophomore Danny Sumner rounded out the double-digit scorers for the College with 12 points on 5-of-10 from the floor.

Sumner got the Tribe started with an alley-oop dunk from sophomore point guard David Schneider to open the game. After a steal and fastbreak bucket from Charles Jenkins cut the W&M lead to 8-6, the Tribe scored 13 straight points to take control. Over a two-minute stretch beginning at the 14:30 mark, W&M hit five straight shots, while the Pride was 0-of-3 from the floor with the turnover.

Reigning CAA Rookie of the Week John Sexton got the run started with a 3-pointer from the right side, before the Tribe carved up the Pride defense with back-to-back lay-ups from Kisielius and Schneider. A Mann three from the left wing was followed by a Sexton trey from the right, extending the W&M cushion to 21-6 with 12:22 remaining in the opening half.

The lead reached as many as 16 on a pair of occasions over the remainder of the half, before the Pride cut into the deficit with a run of their own late in the stanza. With the Tribe leading 32-17 at the six-minute mark, the CAA’s leading scorer Antoine Agudio went to work, cutting the W&M lead to four. Agudio drilled back-to-back threes, before finding freshman Nathaniel Lester from a third. The preseason first-team All-CAA player then made a steal and was fouled on the fastbreak attempt. He connected on both freebies, capping an 11-0 Hofstra run and closing the gap to 32-28 with 2:42 left in the opening half.

W&M took a six-point cushion, 36-30, to the locker room thanks to a driving lay-up by Kisielius with under a minute remaining. The Tribe carried that momentum out of the intermission as well, scoring the first six points of the second 20 minutes to push its lead back into double digits. After a Mann free throw, W&M went inside out as junior forward Peter Stein found Kisielius on the left wing for a wide-open 3-pointer. Stein followed that up with a lay-up off a dish from Kisielius, giving the College a 42-30 cushion less than two minutes into the half.

After a Hofstra free throw and jumper cut the lead to nine, 42-33, Stein answered with his second longball of the evening to push the lead back into double figures, where it would stay for the remainder of the evening. The Tribe advantage bounced between 10 and 15 over the majority of the second half. Hofstra pulled to within 10 on a pair of occasions, including the final time on a weird series of events at the 5:22 mark of the second half.

Stein was whistled for a foul on Agudio, sending the Hofstra star to the free throw line for a one-and-one situation, but following the play, the Tribe bigman was called for contact after the play resulting in a technical foul. Agudio stepped to the charity stripe and hit all four freebies to close the gap to 63-53. The Pride maintained possession, but could draw no closer as the W&M defense tightened.

After a pair of misses from Hofstra, Mann drilled a dagger from a 3-pointer from the top of the key to push the Tribe lead back to 13, 66-53, with 4:18 remaining. The W&M advantage vaulted back to 16 thanks to Mann’s final trey of the night from the top of the key with 1:24 left.

For the second straight game, the Tribe took care of the basketball. W&M only turned over the ball on eight occasions, while dishing out 21 assists on 27 made field goals. Schneider finished with six assists compared to only one turnover and also had three steals. As a team, W&M had a season-high 13 steals.

The Tribe defense was also impressive limiting the Pride to just 33.3 percent (19-of-57) and forcing 18 turnovers. Agudio led Hofstra with 22 points, but the W&M defense limited him to just 5-of-14 shooting from the field.

The Tribe will embark on a three-game road trip beginning on Saturday, Feb. 9, at Northeastern. Tip-off is slated for 1 p.m. in Boston. Fans can catch the action on the Tribe Radio Network with Jay Colley on the call. The broadcast as well as live stats will be available by visiting TribeAthletics.com.

Box Score