TRIBE 63, ODU 64
When junior guard David Schneider’s last-second heave from the corner fell short, so did the College of William and Mary’s (9-19, 4-13 CAA) hopes of pulling off what would have been an impressive road upset against arguably the hottest team in the CAA. Despite a ferocious second-half push, the Tribe could not upend Old Dominion University (19-9, 11-6 CAA), falling 64-63 Wednesday night.
“It was a great performance,” Head Coach Tony Shaver said. “I guess the best way to summarize is: If we would out-rebound them on their home floor, we would have 20 assists and shoot 49 percent from the floor, there is no way we don’t walk out of there with a win. It was a night to be proud of and feel great about our execution and effort, but [it’s] certainly devastating not to get a win.”
Schneider carried the Tribe with a game-high 22 points and team-highs in assists (7) and rebounds (6). His 6 three-pointers kept the team’s underdog aspirations alive until the final horn sounded. Schneider’s last-second attempt materialized after a missed one-and-one opportunity by the Monarchs with 14 seconds left.
The junior drove up the right side of the floor, but found the lane congested as ODU deflected the ball out of bounds, leaving 1.3 seconds on the clock. Following an inbounds screen from senior forward Peter Stein, Schneider threw up a desperation three-pointer, which fell short as time expired.
“We didn’t have timeouts at that point,” Shaver said of the last 14 seconds. “We would have liked to get a little bit better ball movement. We would have liked to get the ball moving, the defense moving a little bit. We did talk a lot about getting it to the hole as opposed to settling for a deep three.”
Coming out of halftime, the Monarchs surged ahead to take a 49-40 lead, despite playing without their leading scorer, forward Gerald Lee. Behind the hot shooting Schneider, the College knotted the game at 53-53 after freshman forward Quinn McDowell sank a three. Schneider led a 13-4, six minute run with two treys while junior forward Danny Sumner chipped in four points of his own.
“That was a great stretch for us, to go down nine at one point and continue to play with confidence and poise,” Shaver said. “We stuck to our guns, and got a few stops, and made threes, and all [of a] sudden we are right back in a one possession game.”
The Tribe took the lead with 1:38 left at 61-58 before ODU guard Darius James evened the score with a three-pointer on ODU’s next possession. Jonathan Adams then sank a shot from downtown to put the Monarchs up for good with 36 seconds remaining.
The Tribe finished the game out-rebounding the Monarchs 27 to 25, holding a 20 to 17 edge in assists and shooting 49 percent to ODU’s 52 percent.
A back-and-forth first half ended with the Monarchs carrying a 27-26 advantage into the break. With three seconds left, junior forward Steven Hess netted an easy two inside after a sharp feed from Sumner to bring the Tribe within one.
