NORFOLK, Va. - On the strength of a career-high 32 points from sophomore Marcus Thornton, the William and Mary men's basketball team led throughout in sweeping the season series with Old Dominion for the first time since 1998 thanks to a 74-62 victory at the Ted Constant Center on Saturday afternoon. In the process, Tribe head man Tony Shaver
Quinn McDowellBrandon Britt scored 15 of his 18 points in the first half, propelling the Tribe to the early lead. He also dished out four assists compared to just one turnover.
The Tribe broke open a 9-all contest with a 13-2 run midway through the opening half. Britt highlighted the spurt with nine points, including a pair of 3-pointers. A Matt Rum steal on the defense end led to a pitch-ahead pass by Britt to junior Kyle Gaillard
The Green and Gold lead reached as many as 12, 25-13, on a Julian Boatner 3-pointer from the top of the key at the 7:25 mark, but the Monarchs came back with a run of its own. As part of a 13-3 ODU spurt, Dimitri Batten and Aaron Bacote drilled back-to-back 3-pointers. The second of the sequence twiddled the Tribe margin to 29-28 with 3:01 left in the opening half.
After a Tim Rusthoven
Thornton (8-of-8) and Britt (3-of-4) combined to go 11-of-12 from the charity stripe over the final 2:30 of the contest to put the game away. A pair of Thornton free throws at the 55 second mark pushed the lead to double-digits, before settling on the final margin of 12.
Old Dominion shot 50 percent (28-of-56) from the floor for the game, including a 52 percent (13-of-25) clip in the second half. The Monarchs were only 6-of-22 (27.3 percent) from 3-point range. Bacote led ODU with 20 points on 8-of-14 from the floor and 4-of-8 from 3-point range, while Painter tallied a double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds.
The Tribe wraps up its four-game in eight-day stretch when it hosts Georgia State on Monday, Feb. 18. Tip-off is slated for 7 p.m. at Kaplan Arena.
