W&M Hosts Horizon League Foe Loyola-Chicago

The Tribe will host the Ramblers for the first time on Saturday, Feb. 23, at 1 p.m.

02/22/08 12:30PM

Williamsburg - The William and Mary men’s basketball team will take a break from the conference slate to battle Horizon League foe Loyola (Chicago) in a Saturday matinée. Tip-off for the first-ever meeting between the two schools is slated for 1 p.m. at Kaplan Arena.

Both teams snapped three-game losing streaks in their last outings. The Tribe broke a three-game skid with a 57-50 victory over Drexel on Feb. 20. W&M used a stout defensive effort and a balanced scoring attack to tally its 10th CAA victory of the season. It marked only the second time in the school’s 23-year history in the league that is has won double-digit games. Senior Nathan Mann led the W&M charge with 13 points, while senior Laimis Kisielius and sophomores David Schneider and Danny Sumner each added 12. Loyola notched a 68-61 win over Valparaiso on Feb. 20. Justin Cerasoli and Darrin Williams each scored 19 points in the Ramblers victory.

Fans can catch all the action between W&M and Loyola on the Tribe Radio Network with Jay Colley, Bill McDonald and Charlie Woollum on the call. The broadcast can also be heard over the Internet at TribeAthletics.com. Live stats will also be available at the home for W&M Athletics.

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

Story lines
- The meeting will be the first-ever between W&M and Loyola. It will also mark only the second time the Tribe has played a member of the Horizon League.

- Senior guard Nathan Mann is only 15 points shy of becoming the 30th player in W&M history to scored 1,000 career points.

Scouting Loyola
Loyola University Chicago enters the game with the Tribe at 10-16 overall and sits in eighth in the Horizon League at 6-10. The Ramblers are only 2-10 this season on the road. Loyola snapped a three-game losing streak with a 68-61 victory over Valparaiso in its most recent contest on Feb. 20. Loyola has been playing some of its best basketball as of late. The three losses during the losing streak came by a combined 12 points with two of the contests on the road. Prior to that, the Ramblers had won three straight games, including a win over Horizon League third-place Cleveland State. The trip will be the Ramblers first-ever to the state of Virginia.

Loyola also tallied wins at Valparaiso and against Youngstown State during its three-game winning streak. Most recently, the Ramblers dropped a 60-55 decision to Illinois-Chicago, before falling at Wright State, 55-51, and Detroit, 56-53. In its victory over Valparaiso on Feb. 20, a trio of Ramblers scored in double digits led by 19 points from Darrin Williams and Justin Cerasoli. Loyola’s leading scorer J.R. Blount added 16 to go along with four assists.

The Ramblers ranked among the Horizon League leaders in scoring defense, free throw shooing, rebounding margin and turnover margin. Loyola is one of the top teams in the nation when it comes to protecting the basketball. The Ramblers ranked 28th nationally only averaging 12.8 turnovers per game. On the flip side, Loyola ranks near the bottom the Horizon league in field goal percentage and 3-point field goal percentage. The Ramblers are only shooting 40.5 percent from the field and 26.6 percent from 3-point range on the year. Over the last five games, Loyola is only allowing opponents to score 57 points per game.

Blount tops the Ramblers and ranks fifth in the Horizon League in scoring at 14.8 points per game. Earlier this season, the junior guard scored his 1,000th career point and was a preseason second-team All-Horizon League choice. Leon Young and Jusitn Cerasoli are both averaging in double figures as well for the Ramblers. Despite missing nine games, Young is averaging 12.1 points and 5.7 rebounds per game. Cerasoli, who joined Loyola as a transfer from Mississippi at the semester break, averages 10.4 points per game and is the Ramblers’ top 3-point threat at 33.9 percent. Tracy Robinson adds just under 10 points per game at 9.7 a contest for Loyola, while forward Andy Polka ranks sixth in the Horizon League averaging a team-best 6.7 rebounds per game.

Picking Pockets
Sophomore David Schneider has long been valued as one of the hardest working players in Colonial Athletic Association. Schneider not only ranks second on the Tribe squad in scoring and has one of the top assist-to-turnover ratios in league, but he is also becoming one of the Tribe’s top defensive weapons in its various zone sets.

In the College’s victory over Drexel, Schneider came up with a career-best six steals to help W&M to a season-best 13 swipes. The six steals were also the fourth-best single-game total in W&M history. He became the first Tribe player since Adam Hess in 2003-04 to register six steals in a game.

On the year, Schneider is averaging 1.9 steals per game, which ranks fourth in the CAA. The steals per game average is 10th W&M history and the third-best since 1986. His 49 steals on the year are the ninth most in school history and the second most since 1998. Randy Bracy has the highest total since 1986 with 57.

Building a Winner
Building a consistent winner at William and Mary was a charge of head coach Tony Shaver when he took over the reigns at the College five seasons ago. Those goals are starting to come to fruition as W&M won its 14th game of the season with its victory over Drexel on Feb. 20. It marked the second straight season that W&M has won 14 or more contests. The last time W&M tallied 14 or more wins in back-to-back seasons was during the 1983-84 and 1984-85 seasons.

The 14 wins this season marks the fourth time in the last 20 years that the College has collected at least 14 victories in a season. The 2007-08 version of Tribe hoops is the 27th in the 103-year history of W&M men’s hoops that it has won 14 or more games.

Double-digit League Wins
The Tribe currently sits in fourth place in the league standings at 10-6. The 10 wins are the second-most for a W&M team since joining the CAA in 1982-83. Prior to the 1985-86 season, the league was known as the ECAC South. The Tribe won a program-best 13 league games in 1997-98.

The 2007-08 version of Tribe basketball joined some elite company with its 10th league win against Drexel. In the program’s 71-year affiliation with a conference, it marks only the eighth time a W&M team won 10 or more league games. It occurred six times as a member of the Southern Conference (1948-49 [10], 1949-50 [12], 1950-51 [13], 1951-52 [10], 1959-60 [10] and 1962-63 [10]) and only once as a member of the CAA (1997-98 [13]). W&M was a member of the Southern Conference from 1936-77, before joining the ECAC South from 1977-85. The Tribe was a charter member of the CAA and has been with the league since 1985.

Home Sweet Home
After a grueling three-game road trip, the Tribe returned home to snap a losing skid with a 57-50 win over Drexel on Feb. 20. Two of W&M’s final three regular season games will be in the friendly confines of Kaplan Arena in Williamsburg. Up next, the College will host Loyola-Chicago on Feb. 23. After a road game at George Mason on Feb. 27, the Tribe will wrap up the regular-season slate with Senior Night on Saturday, March 1, against VCU.

W&M has enjoyed a home court advantage this season, racking up a 9-3 ledger at Kaplan Arena. In fact, the Tribe has won six of its last seven games at home. Over the last two seasons, W&M is 20-8 (.714) in Kaplan Arena. The 20 home victories are the most for the College over a two-year stretch since W&M won 21 combined in 1982-83 (11) and 1983-84 (10). The Tribe has a shot to win double-digit home games in back-to-back seasons for the first time in 23 years. The last time Tribe accomplished the feat it won 10 games at home during both the 1983-84 and 1984-85 campaigns.

Longball Records Set to Fall
The Tribe has relied heavily on the 3-point shot during the 2007-08 campaign and in the process, has already bettered the school-record mark for 3-pointers made in a season. W&M topped the record of 200 set last season and currently has drilled 206 3-point field goals this season. More impressive than bettering the mark was the fact that the Tribe did it in five less games and 57 fewer attempts than a season ago.

The College is also on pace to shatter the high water mark for treys attempted in a season as well. Last season, W&M attempted 624 3-pointers, but at its currently pace of 22.4 3-pointers per game, W&M is set to attempt a record 650 from long range during the regular season. The Tribe’s 582 attempts from 3-point range already rank as the second highest total in school history.

This season, W&M is knocking down just under eight 3-pointers a game, which tops the CAA and ranked 52nd nationally as of Feb. 17. W&M is hitting at a high rate from long range, shooting 35.4 percent. The percentage is the highest for the College since 1996. During that campaign, W&M shot 36.8 percent from 3-point range. The Tribe’s per game average of 7.92 would also establish a new school record and is nearly one 3-pointer per game better than the previous mark of 6.93 set in 1998.

Mann in the Record Books
Heading into his senior campaign, Nathan Mann had already established himself as one of the best 3-point shooters in W&M history. The Overland Park, Kan., native is enjoying perhaps his best season as a senior and in the process is not far from pushing himself atop many of the College’s 3-point records.

Mann has connected on 66 long balls this season and is averaging 2.54 treys per game. The 66 3-point field goals rank as the third highest single-season total in school history, while the 2.54 treys per game is the second-best in the program’s annals. Mann needs only nine treys to equal the single-season record of 75 threes by Greg Burzell in 1988. Mann’s 42 percent shooting from 3-point range this season is the fourth-best in school history and ranks as the best for a Tribe senior in school history. The prevouis best for a W&M senior was 39.6 percent from Thomas Roberts in 1992-93.

For his career, Mann currently sits at 208 made 3-point field goals on 569 chances. Both those numbers are the second-most in school history and quickly closing in on the Tribe’s all-time records. The school record for 3-pointers made and attempted is held by Matt Verkey (1993-96), who was 218-of-583 for his Tribe career. Mann trails Verkey by 10 made 3-pointers and 14 attempted. The senior tri-captain also ranks sixth in career 3-point field goal percentage at 36.6 percent and fifth in 3-pointers made per game at 1.84.


Reaching the 1,000-Point Mark
Senior guard Nathan Mann is within 15 points of joining fellow classmate Laimis Kisielius in the 1,000-point club. Kisielius became the 29th member of the Tribe’s 1,000-point club when he connected on a 3-pointer at the end of the half in the Tribe’s 70-67 win over James Madison on Jan. 30.

Mann could become the 30th member of the exclusive club in the 103-year history of Tribe basketball. Mann has 985 career points and will only need to average five points per game over the rest of the regular season to reach the mark. At his current pace of 10.3 points per game, Mann would reach the mark at George Mason on Feb. 27.

Once Mann reaches the milestone, the duo would become only the third pair in history to score their 1,000th career points in the same season. Matt Courage and John Lowenhaupt both scored their 1,000th career points in 1977, while Matt Verkey and Carl Parker reached the mark in 1996. Kisielius and Mann would be the first to do it in the same season after spending their entire careers together. Two other duos, Bev Vaughan and Jeff Cohen (1958-61) as well as Kevin Richardson and Keith Cieplicki (1982-85), played their entire careers together, but scored their 1,000th career points in separate seasons.

Kisielius currently sits at 1,050 points in his career and ranks 26th in the program’s annals. The Vilnius, Lithuania native is leading the Tribe in scoring at 11.2 points per game over his senior campaign.

Free Throws Valuable to Success
Free throw shooting has proven to be another key ingredient in the Tribe’s winning recipe this season. As the season has progressed the Tribe has gotten better from the charity stripe both in percentage and frequency of attempts. Getting to the foul line has been a valuable commodity for the Green and Gold as W&M is 11-1 this season when connecting on more free throws than its opponent.

The Tribe is 8-2 this season when shooting 20 or more free throws in a game and 23-11 over the last three seasons when pulling the trick. It is just as important for the Tribe to connect on its free throw opportunities. W&M is 8-1 this season when making more than 15 free throws in a game. Over the last two seasons, the College has posted a 14-5 mark when connecting on 15 or more free throws.

The Tribe’s record jumps to 11-2 over the last three seasons when hitting on 20-plus free throw attempts, including a perfect 4-0 this season. W&M connected on 22-of-30 and 20-of-30 in back-to-back wins at Old Dominion (Jan. 5) and against James Madison (Jan. 9) this season. The College connected on 20-of-28 from the charity stripe in the second battled against the Dukes. Most recently, the College shot 87 percent on 20-of-23 in its victory over Drexel.

W&M has increased its free throw percentage throughout the 2007-08 season. Over the last 14 games, the Tribe has connected on 73.3 percent (178-of-243). The Green and Gold is shooting nearly three percentage points better from the foul line in victory. W&M hits at a 71.5 percent (198-of-277) clip in wins compared to just 67.9 percent (106-of-156) when it loses. W&M is 9-6 this season when shooting 70 percent or better from the charity stripe.