Late last week, William and Mary men’s basketball (14-11, 8-4 CAA) lost back-to-back games for the first time since Dec. 2, falling to Coastal Athletic Association rivals Drexel (13-12, 5-7 CAA) and Delaware (12-13, 5-7 CAA). The defeats dropped the Tribe from third in the league standings to fifth.
The games were the team’s first without second leading scorer senior forward Noah Collier, who suffered a noncontact lower leg injury during a Feb. 3 win against Charleston. It is currently unclear when Collier will return.
“Things [like Collier’s injury], you want to be really careful about how you handle that,” head coach Brian Earl said during a Feb. 5 appearance on The Field of 68’s Mid-Major Show. “There’s nothing official yet out there that can be released.”
Thursday, Feb. 6, the Tribe lost to Drexel 86-66 at the Daskalakis Athletic Center in Philadelphia, Pa. Coming off the victory over CAA titan Charleston, William and Mary entered the afternoon with momentum, but the Dragons tested the visitors from the opening whistle. Hot interior shooting gave Drexel a 9-1 score advantage less than four minutes into the game.
The Green and Gold’s upperclassmen helped the team catapult back into contention. Senior guard Gabe Dorsey, graduate student forward Keller Boothby and graduate student forward Malachi Ndur knocked down jumpers, sparking a 12-5 Tribe run. With 12 minutes left in the first half, a triple from junior guard Kyle Pulliam made the score 16-14 and gave William and Mary its first lead of the afternoon.
The teams battled back and forth for the next seven minutes, neither side claiming a significant advantage. Pulliam, Dorsey, Ndur and junior guard Chase Lowe each scored for the Tribe, but their efforts were countered by buckets from Drexel junior guard Jason Drake and senior guard Yame Butler.
Three Drexel three-pointers in the final four minutes of the half finally gave the home team a cushion. Although Dorsey, Boothby and Lowe continued to find the basket, the Tribe could not keep pace with its opponents down the stretch and entered the break trailing 37-30.
William and Mary briefly remained competitive after halftime, with Pulliam, Gabe Dorsey and senior forward Caleb Dorsey leading a charge that brought the Tribe within striking distance at the 11 minute mark, but Drexel’s Drake buried the visitors’ hopes of winning. The guard scored 10 consecutive Dragon points, draining multiple three-pointers and extending his team’s lead from 48-46 to 56-48. Another Drexel run soon clinched the hosts’ victory.
For the Green and Gold, Gabe Dorsey finished with 17 points, while Pulliam scored 15 before fouling out later in the second half. Ndur scored nine while grabbing five rebounds, and Lowe racked up 11 points, seven rebounds and four assists. Typically productive freshman guard Isaiah Mbeng was held scoreless in 15 minutes.
As a team, William and Mary made just five of its 26 three-point attempts for a 19.2% shooting percentage and 19 of its 31 free throw attempts for a 61.3% shooting percentage. Although the Tribe committed only eight turnovers to Drexel’s 15, they were outrebounded 35-25.
Saturday, Feb. 8, William and Mary fell to Delaware by a score of 74-64 at the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark, Del. The Tribe started red-hot, using two three-pointers from Gabe Dorsey to take a 9-5 lead, but the home team hit several triples of its own to even the score at 18-18.
A subsequent 18-1 Blue Hen run threatened to blow the game open immediately. Gabe Dorsey’s long-range shooting kept the Tribe within striking distance, as the team’s leading scorer posted 15 points during the first half alone, but Delaware junior guard Cavan Reilly hit a deflating three-pointer as the halftime buzzer sounded to put his team up 43-30.
The Green and Gold emerged from the locker room revitalized, rattling off a 10-0 run behind a strong effort from Ndur. Although a Reilly three-pointer briefly halted the Tribe’s momentum, Gabe Dorsey responded with a triple of his own, and soon enough William and Mary had leveraged four consecutive Delaware turnovers to take a 57-56 lead with 9:32 remaining.
It was then the Tribe went ice-cold. During the game’s final nine minutes, the Green and Gold made just one field goal and scored just seven points. Once again, William and Mary was doomed by a late run by their opponents, as Delaware scored 16 of the game’s final 23 points to secure the win.
Gabe Dorsey turned in another efficient performance, scoring 19 points, while Lowe posted 12 points and seven rebounds and Pulliam racked up 10 points and four rebounds. Boothby made just one of his six three-point attempts, while Mbeng was stifled for the second consecutive outing, making two shots in 21 minutes. The game marked the Tribe’s sixth consecutive loss to the Blue Hens and dropped the Green and Gold to 18-32 all-time against Delaware.
Despite shooting 33.7% from beyond the arc on the season, the Tribe made just 29% of its 3-point attempts against Delaware. William and Mary has now shot below 30% from three in four of its last five games.
The Tribe will look to rebound at home this week, hosting Hofstra (12-13, 4-8 CAA) Thursday, Feb. 13 and Drexel Saturday, Feb. 15 at Kaplan Arena in Williamsburg, Va.
