Tribe Drops Road Game at ODU

By the Tribe Athletics Press Room Sunday, January 29, 2012

The William and Mary men's basketball team dropped a CAA road contest at Old Dominion, 68-44, on Saturday afternoon at the Ted Constant Center.

The Green and Gold fell to 4-19 overall and 2-9 in CAA play, while the Monarchs won their seventh straight in improving to 14-9 on the year and 9-2 in league action.

Senior forward Quinn McDowell led the Tribe with 15 points on 6-of-10 from the floor and 3-of-6 from 3-point range. He added three rebounds and three assists. Junior guard Matt Rum scored nine points, including a 2-of-3 effort from 3-point range, while sophomore guard Julian Boatner chipped in eight points. Sophomore forward Tim Rusthoven led the College with four assists to go along with three rebounds and five points.

Old Dominion opened the game on a 12-point run as Trian Iliadis, who had five points on the spurt, capped it with a bucket at the 16:20 mark. The Tribe answered with five consecutive 3-pointers. Trailing 18-8, the Green and Gold went on a 12-2 run as McDowell knocked down back-to-back triples to tie the game at 20 with 9:54 left in the opening half.

The Monarchs scored five straight points to retake the lead, but the margin was just 27-25 after McDowell's third 3-pointer of the opening half with four minutes to play. Over the remainder of the opening 20 minutes, ODU used a 13-3 run in taking a 12-point cushion to the locker room. Donte Hill sparked the run for ODU, knocking down a 3-pointer and closing out the first-half scoring with a conventional 3-point play to send the Monarchs to a 40-28 halftime advantage. W&M connected on seven 3-pointers in the opening half of play, while ODU countered by shooting nearly 61 percent from the floor.

In the second half, Old Dominion scored eight of the stanza's first 10 points in pushing its lead to 18, 48-30, on a Chris Cooper putback dunk at the 14:57 mark. The Green and Gold could get no closer than 16 points the rest of the way before falling 68-44.

W&M finished the game shooting 40 percent (16-of-40) from the floor, including 34.8 percent (8-of-23) from 3-point range. ODU shot 51.9 percent (28-of-54) from the field and was 7-of-20 from 3-point range. The Monarchs also held a 35-21 advantage on the glass. Chris Cooper topped ODU with 14 points and nine rebounds, while Iliadis and Hill finished with 11 points apiece.

The Tribe will return to action when it hosts VCU on Wednesday. Tip-off is slated for 7 p.m. at Kaplan Arena and will mark the Tribe's third straight TV game. The game will be broadcast on Comcast SportsNet Mid-Atlantic, Comcast/Charter Sports Southeast and The Comcast Network-Philadelphia. Fans can catch the action over the Tribe Radio Network, 92.3FM The Tide and 107.9 BACHfm, with Jay Colley and Bill McDonald on the call. Coverage begins at 6:30 p.m. with the pregame coach's show.