WILLIAMSBURG — William & Mary celebrated the start of the 2024-25 campaign and head coach Brian Earl‘s first game in the Green and Gold with an emphatic 84-36 win over Dickinson College on Monday night at Kaplan Arena.
Senior Gabe Dorsey led all scorers with 16 points, including 4-of-7 from 3-point range. In his first collegiate game, freshman Isaiah Mbeng added 11 points off the bench, connecting on 3-of-5 from 3-point range and dishing out three assists. Junior Kyle Pulliam finished with 10 points in his first game with the Tribe.
Defensively, the Tribe limited Dickinson to 23.7% (14-of-59) shooting from the floor and only 12.9% (4-of-31) from 3-point range. W&M recorded 14 steals, its most since 2016, and forced the Red Devils into 21 turnovers. Mbeng, junior Miles Hicks, and Gabe Dorsey each had three steals apiece.
On the other side, the Tribe shot 45.3% (29-of-64) from the field, hitting 12 3-pointers. W&M dished out 20 assists on its 29 made field goals and had only nine turnovers.
The Tribe wasted little time jumping out to a comfortable lead, scoring 26 of the game’s first 29 points. Gabe Dorsey scored the first eight points on the season, hitting back-to-back 3-pointers followed by a back-cut lay-up off a Malachi Ndur pass.
In total, W&M tallied the first 10 points of the contest, before Dickinson, which missed its first seven shots, opened its scoring with a 3-pointer. The Green and Gold ripped off 16 more in a row, including 3-pointers from graduate student Keller Boothby and junior Kyle Frazier, in opening up a 26-3 lead with 10:36 remaining in the opening half.
The Red Devils closed to within 16 thanks to a seven-point run, but the Tribe ended the half by scoring the final seven points to take a 42-19 lead at the intermission.
The second half looked similar to the opening 20 minutes as W&M used a pair of 11-point runs around a Dickinson 3-pointer to open up a 42-point cushion midway through the frame.
The Tribe used three-straight triples from Pulliam, Gabe Dorsey and Frazier to open up a 56-22 with 12:55 left. After a Red Devil triple, W&M scored 11-straight again capped by a Pulliam fast-break dunk off a Frazier pass to extend the margin to 67-25 at the 9:56 mark.
The Green and Gold lead reached its largest at 81-32 on freshman Ryan Jackson, Jr. dunk off a back-door-cut pass from junior Nick Evans with 4:16 left.
Seeing his first game action in nearly a year, senior Noah Collier finished with seven points and seven rebounds, while classmate Matteus Case had eight points and two steals. In total, 14 of the 15 Tribe players that saw action scored and no one saw more than 20 minutes of action.
Up Next
The Tribe hits the road for the first time when it travels to Radford on Friday, Nov. 8. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m. and the game will be broadcast on ESPN+. W&M fans can catch the action of the Tribe Sports Network with Jay Colley on the call.
