The William and Mary men’s basketball team fell at the College of Charleston, 80-72, on Thursday night at TD Arena. The Cougars used a 17-5 run to end the first half to take a lead it would not relinquish and shot 54.5 percent from the field in downing the Tribe. W&M fell to 14-8 overall and 8-3 in CAA play, while Charleston improved to 7-17 on the year and 2-9 in league action.
Sophomore Omar Prewitt led the Tribe with 22 points on 6-of-11 shooting and 8-of-9 from the free throw line, before fouling out. Junior Terry Tarpey recorded his seventh doube-double of the season with 16 points and 11 rebounds, while senior Marcus Thornton finished with 15 points and four assists in the loss.
The Tribe jumped out of the gates strong, scoring 10 of the game’s first 12 points, including five from Prewitt. His driving lay-up at the 16:11 mark gave the Green and Gold a 10-2 advantage.
Back-to-back Tarpey buckets pushed the Tribe lead to 10 just two minutes later. A Thornton steal led to a pass ahead and a fast-break one-handed jam from Tarpey to extend the Tribe advantage to 16-6 and force a Charleston timeout.
The home team closed to within 20-17 on an Adjehi Baru jumper from the left baseline at 9:37 mark. W&M answered with back-to-back 3-pointers from freshman Greg Malinowski and sophomoreDaniel Dixon to push the Tribe lead back to nine with 7:30 left in the opening half.
Charleston closed the first 20 minutes on a 17-5 run to take a lead into the locker room. Back to back triples from freshmen Evan Bailey and Cameron Johnson tied the game at 29. A three from Dixon momentary gave W&M a 32-29 lead, before CofC score the half’s final six points. Johnson and Anthony Stitt each hit a pair of free throws to give the Cougars a 35-32 lead at the intermission.
Charleston held W&M without a field goal for the opening 6:12 of the second half and pushed its lead to doubled digits. The Tribe was 9-of-12 from the charity stripe over the stretch and a Prewitt freebie at the 15:13 mark cut the Charleston lead to five.
The Cougars responded with five quick points to push its lead to double digits. Canyon Barry hit a 3-pointer from the right side, before a Stitt steal and fastbreak lay-up pushed the CofC advantage to 50-40 with 14:39 left. W&M’s first bucket of the second half came on a Tom Schalk steal and fastbreak lay-up at the 13:48 mark, but Charleston pushed its lead to as many as 12.
The Green and Gold drew within six points, 65-59, for the final time at the 6:27 mark on a pair of Thornton free throws. The Cougar lead was seven, 68-61, after a Prewitt jumper with 3:38 left, and Thornton had a chance to cut it to four with a 3-pointer, but it rimmed out. Charleston’s Joe Chealey answered with a triple on the other end to pushed the CofC advantage back to 10. Charleston hit 9-of-12 from the charity stripe over the final 1:08, including five from Chealey, to put the game away.
W&M shot just 42.6 percent (20-of-47) from the field and only 36.4 percent (8-of-22) in the second half. The Tribe was just 6-of-22 (27.3 percent) from 3-point range, but did finish at 76.5 percent (26-of-34) from the free throw line. Charleston connected on 54.5 percent (24-of-44) for the game, including 57.9 percent (11-of-19) in the second half. The Cougars hit 8-of-19 (42.1 percent) from 3-point range and connected on 24-of-33 (72.7 percent) from the free throw line.
Barry led five CofC players in double figures with 19 points and six rebounds. Chealey added 16 points, while Baru and Bailey finished with 12 each. Stitt, who had missed the previous seven games due to injury, tallied 10 points, five rebounds and five assists.
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