29 November, 2006
by Thomas Polk
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1st |
2nd |
Final |
| William & Mary (1-3) |
28 |
35 |
63 |
| Navy (5-2) |
38 |
41 |
79 |
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After a tough game against Villanova on Saturday where the Wildcats barely escaped with a victory and Kaleo Kina sustained a dizzying fall, the Midshipmen of Navy bounced back, beating out the William & Mary Tribe 79–63. Although sloppy at times (17 turnovers), Navy’s defensive intensity and balanced scoring (6 players scored 8 points or better) kept the Tribe from establishing a serious threat. Kina showed early with a couple of steals and a 9 points before the first media timeout that he was ready to play and felt no effects from Saturday.
The start of the second half must be mentioned as well. The Mids were truly focused coming out of the locker room both halves; their defensive pressure lead to a steal and a 6-0 mini-run with the score 44–28 at the 18:12 mark. Setting the tempo with their defensive pressure made it difficult for the Tribe to find any momentum in the early going of the second half and stifled their hopes of climbing back into the game.
William & Mary was without its assist leader and second leading scorer, David Schneider, due to injury. The Tribes’ leading scorer Laimis Kisielius was held to only 8 points down from a season average of 14.7 points; he took only 3 field goals making 2 of them.
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| Keys to the Game |
| Key sequence |
On the first possession of the game, Kaleo Kina stole the ball from Laimis Kisielius scoring for an easy lay-up at the other end. Trey Stanton would grab another steal on ensuing Tribe possession although Corey Johnson would miss the jumper on the other end. Kisielius knotted the game at 2–2 (the game’s only tie) with a chance at a three-point play and the lead after a T.J. Topercer foul, but he would miss on the free throw. Kina scored from long on a well-guarded look with the Tribe’s Peter Stein good on a jumper to make it 5–4. A drive by Kina for a lay-up and a pair of steals both converted into easy points would bring the Mids up 11–4 at the 16:23 mark; the point differential would never be less than 7 for the remainder of the game.
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| Key sign it was over |
By the 12:49 mark in the second half, William and Mary had chipped away at the Mids’ 16 point lead with the score now at 49–40. A pair of fouls and a turnover by the Mids had Coach Lange a bit flustered until a Kina three-pointer revitalized the team. The point differential would hover around 13 points for the next few minutes. However, the lead would reach 17 after a fast-break dunk by Greg Sprink and swelled to 22 points by the 7:16 mark. A few seconds later, Coach Tony Shaver of William & Mary would call a time-out to collect his team, who had scored only 6 points over the last 6 minutes.
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| Key performance |
Kina had an outstanding performance tonight with a season- and game-high 18 points. He outscored William and Mary 9–8 until Peter Stein hit a jumper for the Tribe at the 8:26 mark to bring the score to 20–10. His defensive pressure set the tempo for Navy as they scored 16 fast-break points and 30 points off of turnovers. He finished the night shooting 6-of-8 from the floor (2-of-3 from behind the arc) with 7 rebounds, 6 assists, and 5 steals in 29 minutes.
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| Key statistic |
4-of-21; the Tribe shot 19.0 percent from beyond the arc and 22-of-55 overall. Navy’s defense forced William & Mary to shoot poorly from the outside and limited the Tribe’s effort to control the paint. Navy forced 18 turnovers with 11 steals.
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| Notes |
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Navy’s shooting was hot, scoring at a rate of 61.4 percent from the floor and 64.3 percent from beyond the arc.
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William and Mary did outrebound the Mids (only by 2) with 12 offensive boards scoring 14 second chance points. Coach Lange stated that his team would work hard on rebounding but was not worried about being outdone on the boards, commenting that this team is not a strong rebounding team. He is concerned about limiting the opposition’s offensive rebounds.
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Scoring in the paint was about equal with William & Mary scoring 26 points and Navy 30.
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William & Mary is 0-2 against the Patriot League this year. Holy Cross recently hosted the Tribe and fought hard for the 66-57 victory in Worcester.
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