Sunday, March 9, William and Mary men’s basketball (17-15, 11-7 CAA) lost to Delaware (16-20, 5-13 CAA) 100-78 at the CareFirst Arena in Washington, D.C. The game was a quarterfinal matchup in the 2025 Coastal Athletic Association Men’s Basketball Championship and marked the Tribe’s postseason opener. With the loss, the Green and Gold was eliminated from NCAA Tournament contention.
William and Mary entered the tournament as the fourth seed and received a double bye into the quarterfinals. Twelfth-seeded Delaware defeated 13th-seeded Stony Brook (8-24, 4-14 CAA) and fifth-seeded Campbell (15-17, 10-8 CAA) in the first and second rounds before advancing to face the Tribe. This set up a rematch of a Feb. 8 game that saw the Blue Hens defeat the Green and Gold 74-64.
Before the 2:30 p.m. tip-off, CAA commissioner Joe D’Antonio presented all-conference honors to senior guard/forward Gabe Dorsey and freshman guard Isaiah Mbeng. Dorsey, the Tribe’s leading scorer, received a spot on the All-CAA Second Team, while Mbeng, the Tribe’s leader in assists, was selected to the All-CAA Rookie Team.
The Green and Gold rolled out a starting lineup of Gabe Dorsey, senior guard Matteus Case, junior guard Chase Lowe and graduate student forwards Malachi Ndur and Keller Boothby.
After the Blue Hens won the tip, both sides started hot from behind the arc. Delaware junior guard Cavan Reilly opened the scoring with a three-ball, but Gabe Dorsey answered on the next possession with a deep three-pointer of his own. Graduate student guard Erik Timko laced a corner three to continue the back-and-forth scoring and give the Blue Hens a 6-3 lead.
An errant Case triple marked the first missed field goal of the day. However, he found the bottom of the net on the next possession thanks to a ball screen by Ndur. A subsequent Boothby three gave the Tribe a 9-8 advantage at the 17 minute, 43 second mark.
The Green and Gold frequently went into a full-court press in the hope of generating early turnovers, a strategy that proved successful after Reilly and freshman guard Izaiah Pasha gave the ball away multiple times. At first, William and Mary was unable to capitalize on its opponents’ mistakes, failing to convert several fast break scoring opportunities following the steals, and Delaware claimed a 13-9 lead.
Mbeng reversed the trend, stealing the ball from Pasha and banking in a layup on the breakaway. More points came from the press after another Mbeng steal led to a putback layup by junior guard Kyle Pulliam.
Following a successful Timko mid-range shot, Case forced his way to the basket and drew a shooting foul, making both free throws and equalizing the game at 15-15. After another Delaware triple, Case shook off his defender and got to the rim for an acrobatic layup.
The Blue Hens shot back in front at 11:48 courtesy of a Reilly wing three-pointer, but the Tribe proceeded to rattle off a 9-0 spurt that started off with a Mbeng three-ball from the wing.
On the next play, Mbeng forced a turnover on senior guard Niels Lane. Mbeng kicked the ball out to Boothby, who let his defender sail by before lacing the corner three. The run was capped off with a deep three from Gabe Dorsey, and the Tribe went up 27-21 with 10:33 left in the half.
The Blue Hens hung close in part to a flurry of three-pointers from Pasha, Timko and senior forward John Camden. Camden drained three threes during this stretch, the last of which gave Delaware a 37-35 advantage at the 5:57 mark.
Once again, the Tribe responded with a lopsided run. Mbeng handed the ball to a trailing Gabe Dorsey, who pulled up from deep for a three-ball. Moments later, Mbeng connected with Pulliam for an alley-oop layup. With a hot hand, Pulliam fired up a corner three to give the Tribe a 43-37 lead at the 3:52 mark.
Back-to-back Delaware triples evened the score at 43-43, but six free throws from Pulliam, Lowe and Case put William and Mary in front 49-47 to end the half.
In the first half, three-point scoring carried the offensive load for Delaware, as the Blue Hens shot a lights-out 12-20 from beyond the arc. The Green and Gold saw significant success getting to the charity stripe, making 11 free throws to Delaware’s one.
On the other side of the break, the Tribe drew first blood after Ndur cut toward the basket and drew a foul on Reilly. The big man made both free throws. Boothby tacked on three more points when Case swung the ball to the forward at the top of the key, extending the Tribe lead to a game-high seven points at the 18:39 mark.
However, Delaware used a stretch of hot shooting to surge back in front with authority. The 13-1 run included scores from Timko, Reilly and Camden, putting the Blue Hens up 60-55 at the 16:07 mark.
Pulliam attempted to stop the bleeding with a pair of free throws, and Lowe chipped in two hard-fought layups underneath the rim, but the Tribe still trailed 66-61.
The Blue Hens continued their offensive onslaught, pushing the lead to 73-63 following multiple scores by Camden and senior guard Tahron Allen. At the 8:06 mark, Camden hit his eighth three-pointer of the day to put the Blue Hens up 79-64 and tie the CAA Tournament record for triples in a single game.
William and Mary’s last gasp came at the 3:46 mark, when Boothby nailed a corner three and senior forward Caleb Dorsey converted a hook shot to bring the Tribe within single digits of Delaware.
Nonetheless, the Blue Hens ripped off an 11-0 run to bury the Green and Gold for good, ballooning their lead to 20 points after an emphatic transition dunk by Pasha at the 2:02 mark. Following a Gabe Dorsey airball three-pointer, Tribe head coach Brian Earl subbed out his starters and conceded the match.
Late free throws made the final score 100-78 in favor of Delaware, which went on to defeat Towson (22-11, 16-2 CAA) 82-72 in the tournament semifinals before losing to UNCW (27-7, 14-4 CAA) 76-72 in the CAA championship game.
Boothby led the way for the Tribe with 16 points, followed by Gabe Dorsey with 13 points.
Camden-led Delaware scoring with a career-high 36 points. As a team, Delaware set a tournament record by making 18 three-pointers for 62% of attempts made.
“It’s disappointing coming in here and just running into a buzzsaw, some shooting I haven’t seen in a long time,” Earl said. “We were playing at the pace we wanted to, up a couple [points] at the half. A lot of missed easy layups by us, so we could have been in a better place. And, then it just went against us in the second half.”
Earl highlighted multiple missed layups during the Tribe’s scoring dry spell in the second half as a point of emphasis. As a team, William and Mary shot 28% from the field in the second period.
“You need to make those [missed layups] in the game,” Earl said. “There’s a lot of talk about the three-point shooting, but to go under 30% from two [point range] for us with how open the court is is difficult.”
While the Tribe’s campaign ended disappointingly, Earl’s inaugural season as William and Mary head coach saw the Green and Gold win 17 games, a feat the program hasn’t accomplished since 2019-2020.
“It’s been a lot different this year, and I’m just really appreciative of Coach Earl and the staff for embracing me and the other returners,” Gabe Dorsey said. “It was a really fun year for us, just playing in this style and being around really fun, good people.”
“I know Coach and the guys will carry this culture on forward,” Dorsey added. “It’s a new era for William and Mary basketball.”
