HIGH POINT, N.C. — The William & Mary men’s basketball team suffered its second-straight narrow road loss falling at two-time defending Big South Champion High Point, 66-63, on Saturday night at the Millis Center.
The Tribe led by one point at the half and opened up an early double-digit second-half advantage, before the Panthers rallied behind a 26-6 run for the victory. W&M fell to 5-3 on the year, while High Point improved to 6-2.
Junior Terry Tarpey led the Green and Gold just missing a double-double with 13 points and nine rebounds to go along with a team-best five assists and three steals.
Fellow classmate Sean Sheldon recorded a career-high 12 points on 6-of-7 from the field, while adding five rebounds and three assists. Senior guard Marcus Thornton scored 12 points, all in the second half, and sophomore Daniel Dixon hit a trio of 3-pointers to finish with 11 points. Redshirt freshman forward Jack Whitman topped the Green and Gold with seven rebounds, while adding four points.
Leading 28-27 at the half, the Tribe came out of the intermission on fire, hitting four straight 3-pointers. Tarpey and Thornton each drilled a pair on the spurt, before a Sheldon lay-up off a dish from Tarpey at the 16:55 mark gave W&M its largest lead of the game at 42-27.
After another Sheldon bucket, this one off a pass from sophomore Omar Prewitt, made it a 14-point Tribe advantage, HPU started the decisive run. The Panthers scored eight straight points, including six from Brian Richardson, to draw within 44-38 with 12:48 remaining.
Thornton briefly pushed the lead back to eight with two free throws, before the home team scored 15 of the game’s next 17 points. Brown scored nine of HPU’s points during the stretch and the Panthers connected on 7-of-8 from the free throw to flip an eight-point deficit into a five-point lead. Free throws from Devante Wallace put the Panthers on top for the first time in the second half at the 6:35 mark, before Brown’s free throws out of the final media timeout, pushed the HPU lead to 53-48.
W&M drew within three points on five occasions over the final three and a half minutes, but could get no closer. A Tarpey steal and fast-break lay-up cut the gap to 57-54 with 1:17 remaining, but Wallace responded for HPU. He drilled a heavily contested wing 3-pointer late in the shot clock to push it back to a six-point margin. A Dixon 3-pointer with 27.6 seconds remaining cut it back to three, 62-59, but on the ensuing inbound pass, HPU broke the Tribe press for a fast-break John Brown dunk to extend the margin to five with less than 20 seconds to play.
The Tribe finished the game shooting 41.8 percent (23-of-55) from the field, while knocking down 10-of-25 (40 percent) from 3-point range. High Point connected on 42.3 percent (22-of-52) from the field and were just 3-of-16 (18.8 percent) from 3-point range, but countered with a 19-of-24 (79.2) effort from the free throw line. The Panthers were 17-of-20 (85 percent) from the charity stripe in the second half. W&M was just 7-of-9 (77.8 percent) from the free throw line on the night.
The Green and Gold started slow out of the gates as seven straight Panther points opened up a 9-3 advantage for the home team less than three minutes into the contest. The margin remained six, before W&M scored five straight to pull within one with 11:17 left in the opening half. A Tarpey steal and fast-break lay-up start things, before freshman Greg Malinowski found redshirt freshman Michael Schlotman for a 3-poiner from right corner to cut the deficit to 15-14.
The High Point lead again reached six, 22-16, after Wallace knocked down a triple at the 8:08 mark. W&M answered with a 10-1 to take its first lead of the contest. Prewitt and Tarpey canned 3-pointers around a HPU free throw, before Dixon put the Tribe on top with a driving lay-up just before the final first-half media timeout. Sheldon capped the run on a lay-up off a nice dish from Tarpey to give W&M a 26-23 lead with 3:18 to play. A follow-up slam from Whitman with a minute and a half remaining in the period gave W&M a 28-27 advantage into the locker room.
W&M finished with a 34-33 advantage on the glass and dished out 17 assists on its 23 made field goals. Unfortunately, the Tribe turned the ball over 14 times on the night, including six on offensive fouls, which led to 18 HPU points.
Brown led all scorers with 21 points and just missed a double-double with nine rebounds to go with five blocked shots. Richardson added 17 points, while Wallace chipped in 11.
The Tribe will have nearly two weeks off due to final exams at the college. W&M returns to action Dec. 19, when it welcomes Washington College to Williamsburg for a 7 p.m. tip.
