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News Release
Men's Basketball Falls at William and Mary, 70-58
12/22/2006
Williamsburg, VA—Host William and Mary hit 14 of 21 field goal attempts in the first half and built a 17-point intermission advantage as they went on to a 70-58 win over UMBC before 1,421 fans at William and Mary Hall.
UMBC dropped its third straight game and fell to 4-8 on the season, while the Tribe, 14-3 at home vs. non-conference foes in the past four seasons, improved to 5-4.
The Tribe led 24-19 after a jumper by Brian Hodges with 7:03 to play in the first half. But then they went on a 14-0 run, scoring on eight straight possessions and hitting a pair of three-point field goals. Thomas Young’s layup just before intermission sent the visitors into the locker room trailing, 42-25, as UMBC allowed the most first half points to an opponent this year.
The Retrievers came out with renewed enthusiasm in the second half as they Young scored eight points in a 10-0 run in the first 3:31 of the stanza. UMBC cut the deficit to 42-35 and had a possession to cut the lead further, but Young committed a turnover. The Tribe capitalized as sophomore post Alex Smith scored five straight points, propelling the hosts on an 11-0, which restored a comfortable lead of 53-35 with 12:14 remaining.
UMBC whittled the advantage to 10 points with five minutes remaining, but Young committed another key turnover as UMBC could have shaved the lead further. The Retrievers got as close as 60-51 on a Matt Spadafora layup, but with just 2:38 remaining and the Tribe made eight straight free throws down the stretch to seal the win.
The win avenged the Retrievers; 64-60 victory over William and Mary in
Hodges led UMBC with 16 points, while Young added 14 and Chris Pugh tallied 13. Sophomore guard Jay Greene returned to the lineup after missing the last game with a sprained knee ligament, but was held to two points and zero assists in 25 minutes. Greene entered the game as the nation’s 18th-leading assist-man with 5.9 per game, but UMBC recorded only six assists on 21 (of 45, 46.7%) field goals. Freshman post Justin Fry, averaging 10.2 ppg in his last three starts, was held scoreless in 20 minutes.
The Tribe cooled in the second half, but still hit 50 percent (21 of 42) from the floor and a tidy 7 of 15 from behind the arc. William and Mary made its first 13 free throws and 21 of 22 for the contest. Laimis Kisielius led all scorers with 19 points.
UMBC returns home for the first time since Dec. 3 when they host former Northeast Conference rival