Sophomore Justin Pierce erupted for a career-high 30 points and the William & Mary men’s basketball team shot 57.1 percent from the floor and drilled 13 3-pointers on the way to a 99-92 win over Elon on Thursday night at Kaplan Arena. The Tribe (15-7, 8-3 CAA) led by as much as 20 points in the second half and held off a late charge from the visiting Phoenix (13-11, 5-6 CAA) to remain in a tie atop the CAA standings.
After Elon closed a 13-point halftime deficit to eight just over six minutes into the second half, the Tribe answered with a 14-2 run sparked by senior guard David Cohn to stretch the margin to its largest at 20. Cohn found junior Paul Rowley in transition for a triple, and his defensive play, diving on the floor for a steal, resulted in an easy Connor Burchfield fast-break lay-up at the 12:17 mark, extending the lead to 15. He added an old-fashion 3-point play, and the advantage ballooned to 78-58 on Pierce’s lay-up midway through the final period.
Elon hit nine of its next 10 shots, including four 3-pointers, to whittle the Green and Gold lead to three, 89-86, with 2:42 remaining. W&M responded with five straight to put the game out of reach. Rowley found sophomore Nathan Knight for a lay-up, and Pierce canned his sixth 3-pointer to stretch the margin back to eight, 94-86, with a minute and a half left.
W&M used an 8-0 run to open up a nine-point cushion, 24-15, on a Rowley 3-pointer midway through the opening 20 minutes. Elon closed to within two on back-to-back 3-pointers from Seth Fuller and Tyler Seibring, but another Green and Gold 8-0 run extended the margin to double-digits. Pierce knock down back-to-back 3-pointers, before a Knight bucket with 5:40 left pushed the advantage to 36-26. Pierce scored seven-straight Tribe points to pad the lead to 12, 46-34, with just two minutes left in the first frame.
Individual Player Spotlight
Sophomore Justin Pierce poured in a career-high 30 points hitting 10-of-14 from the floor, including 6-of-9 from long range. He added 12 rebounds for his sixth double-double of the season to go with four assists. Classmate Nathan Knight scored 20 points on 8-of-10 from the field to go along with six rebounds and a career-high six assists. Junior Paul Rowley finished with a career-high 16 points on a near perfect 6-of-7 from the floor, while senior Connor Burchfield added with 17 points.
Tyler Seibring topped the Phoenix with 28 points on 10-of-15 shooting, including a perfect 4-of-4 from 3. Dainan Swoope netted 18 of his 25 points in the second half, while Dmitri Thompson chipped in 17 points, seven rebounds and five assists.
Inside the Numbers
– The Green and Gold shot 60 percent (21-of-35) in the first half to open up a 13-point half-time lead. W&M connected on 53.6 percent (15-of-28) in the second half on the way to 57.1 percent (36-of-63).
– The Tribe connected on double-digit 3-points for the fourth-straight game and finished the night with 13, while shooting 52 percent from long range. W&M is 8-0 this season when shooting 50 percent from 3, and 10-2 when knocking down double-digit 3-pointers.
– The Green and Gold dished out 25 assists on its 36 made field goals and only turned the ball over eight times. It marked the Tribe’s seventh game of 20 or more assists this season. W&M is 6-1 in those contests.
Notes
Sophomore Justin Pierce became the third Tribe player this season to score 30 points in a game, joining classmate Nathan Knight and senior Connor Burchfield … Over the last three games, Pierce is averaging 26.7 points and 11.7 rebounds per game, shooting 63.6 percent (28-of-44) from the field and 52.2 percent (13-of-22) from 3-point range … Sophomore Nathan Knight tallied his ninth game of 20 or more points this season and dished out a career-high six assists … Senior Connor Burchfield scored in double figures for the fifth-straight game and is averaging 16.8 points per game during the stretch … Junior Paul Rowley tallied a career-high 16 points on 6-of-7 shooting, including 3-of-4 from 3-point range … It was his fourth double-digit scoring game of the season … W&M has won eight of 10 games against Elon since the Phoenix joined the CAA in 2014-15 … The Tribe’s 248 made 3-pointers this season rank sixth on the program’s single-season list.
Up Next
The Tribe hosts Drexel on Saturday afternoon at 4 p.m., inside the Kaplan Arena. The game will be broadcast digitally online at Sports Live, which is a streaming service from CBS Sports Digital offering subscribers the ability to watch and listen to more than 10,000 live events from top universities and conferences across the country. The Tribe-Dragons game will be FREE to watch.
Tribe fans can catch the men’s basketball action over the Tribe Radio Network with Jay Colley and Charlie Woollum on the call. The Tide 92.3 FM and 107.9 Bach FM are the flagship stations of the Tribe Radio Network and the audio is also available over the Web at TribeAthletics.com.
