Tribe Drops Defensive Battle on Senior Night

W&M honored its quartet of seniors, Kyle Carrabine, Laimis Kisielius, Nathan Mann and Chris Stratton, prior to tip-off with VCU.

03/01/08 11:30PM

Williamsburg - In a battle between two of the top defensive teams in the CAA, the William and Mary men’s basketball team dropped 54-43 decision to the visiting VCU Rams in the regular-season finale on Saturday night at Kaplan Arena. Prior to the contest, W&M recognized its quartet of seniors, Kyle Carrabine, Laimis Kisielius, Nathan Mann and Chris Stratton, for their contributions to the Tribe program over the last four years. The College fell to 14-15 overall and 10-8 in CAA play, while VCU upped its ledger to 23-6 on the year and 15-3 in conference action.

Junior forward Peter Stein led the W&M charge with 15 points and six rebounds, while going 5-of-8 from the floor. Mann finished with nine points in his final game at Kaplan Arena, and sophomore David Schneider added eight points to got along with three assists and two steals in the loss. Freshman forward Marcus Kitts came off the bench to share team-high honors in rebounds with six, including four on the offensive end.

The Tribe trailed by nine points, 25-16, at the half, but battled its way back into the contest in the second 20 minutes. The College scored the first four points of the half to cut the deficit to 25-20. Sophomore Danny Sumner score on a lob pass from Schneider, before Mann hit a floater off the glass to get the College started on the right foot.

A Schneider 3-pointer from the right wing following a pair of free throws from Eric Maynor closed the gap to a single possession, 31-28. W&M forced a turnover on the other end as Schneider came up with the steal. On the ensuing possession, the Green and Gold had four chances to score, but came up empty. The final three shots of the sequence all came from 3-point range and although the connection would have tied the game at 31, the opportunities would not drop for the Tribe.

After a free throw by Maynor at the 13:17 mark pushed the VCU lead to four, 32-28, Schneider found Stein for a cutting lay-up to cut the deficit to two points, seven minutes into the second half. The Rams answered with what proved to be the knockout blow. Over the next seven minutes, VCU went on a 17-4 run to push its lead back to double-digits.

The Rams scored seven straight points, including back-to-back buckets from Brandon Rozzell, before Jamal Shuler answered a W&M bucket with a 3-pointer from the top of the key to give the Rams a 42-32 cushion with 9:50 remaining. Another Tribe bucket closed the margin back within single digits, but VCU scored seven straight points to cap the run. An offensive rebound and dunk from Michael Anderson, who led all scorers with 18 points, gave VCU its largest lead of the game at 15 points, 49-34, with six minutes remaining.

Despite a valiant effort on the defensive end of the floor, W&M could get no closer than 10 points the rest of the way. Schneider’s second longball of the game, capped a quick five-point spurt by the Tribe. The trifecta cut the deficit to 49-39 with five minutes remaining. An offensive putback by Kitts closed the gap to 10 points, 51-41, again, but VCU hit 3-of-4 free throws down the stretch to tally the victory.

The Tribe did the job defensively on the Rams top two scorers in Maynor and Shuler. The VCU duo came into the game averaging a combined 33.9 points per game and rankings among the top 10 in the CAA in scoring. For the year, the tandem was shooting a combined 46.1 percent from the floor and 41.6 percent from 3-point range. W&M limited Maynor and Schuler to just 28.6 percent shooting (6-of-21) from the floor and 27.2 percent (3-of-11) from 3-point range for 20 total points.

Both teams got out of the gates slow thanks to some stout defense in the first half. The Tribe only connected on two of its opening 14 shots of the contest, but the Rams were not much better connecting on three of its first 14 attempts from the floor. Anderson scored five of the Rams’ first six points, but a Schneider jumper at the 14:33 mark, cut the deficit to 6-4.

Over the next nine minutes, the Rams went on an 8-0 run to take a 14-4 lead following Anderson’s second 3-pointer of the opening half at the 7:21 mark. Stein broke the scoreless stretch for the College with a 3-pointer from the top of the key at the 5:31 mark, before a pair of free throws by the Houston, Texas native cut the deficit to 17-9.

The Ram lead reached as many as 14 in the opening half. An alley-oop dunk by Anderson gave the Rams a 25-11 lead with two minutes remaining in the first stanza, but the College seized the momentum going into the locker room by getting to the free throw line. W&M scored the final five points of the half from the charity stripe to narrow the gap to 25-16 at the intermission.

The Tribe will be the No. 5 seed in the CAA Tournament, its highest seed in the league tourney since the 2000-01 season. W&M will meet the No. 12-seeded Georgia State Panthers at 2:30 p.m. in Richmond on Friday, March 7. The CAA Tournament will be played at the Richmond Coliseum, March 7-10.

Live video and stats will be available at CAASports.com, while fans can also follow the action 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.

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