Daniel Dixon’s Twitter handle is @Mr_HeatCheck. Nothing could be more appropriate, at least not of late.
With another outstanding performance, Dixon scored 32 points as William and Mary survived a horrible finish for an 88-85 win against Elon on Thursday night at Kaplan Arena.
Dixon went 11 of 15 from the field and finished with a career-high eight rebounds, along with four assists.
True, he had two turnovers during the aforementioned horrible endgame. But Dixon is the biggest reason W&M was able to stay close during the Phoenix’s early 3-point barrage and come back from an 11-point deficit.
“We’ve seen him a lot,” Elon coach Matt Matheny said. “What I’ve seen on film this year, in particular the last few games, he’s looked really, really good. We just have to do a better job of defending him.
“But to his credit, he’s playing really well.”
It wasn’t a career high — that came Dec. 29 when he torched Old Dominion for 36 points (also on 11-of-15 shooting). But this gem came three nights after he hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer to beat Hofstra on the road.
The Tribe (8-6, 2-1) needed every point. Elon came out blowtorch-hot behind Steven Santa Ana, who scored 29 points and was 9 of 11 from the 3-point arc. He hit his first six attempts from downtown and was a major reason the Phoenix led 43-32 with 1:22 left in the first half.
W&M was able to make it a six-point game at the break and began the second half with a 10-2 run to take the lead. It was a tie game with 7:20 left when Dixon came to the bench with his fourth foul. But when he returned nearly 3 1/2 minutes later, W&M led 76-71.
When Dixon hit a pull-up in the lane with 1:23 left, William and Mary looked safe with an 85-78 lead. Then came a stretch that W&M coach Tony Shaver said aged him “about 20 years.”
As Elon threw an all-out full-court press, the Tribe turned the ball over five consecutive possessions. Elon was able to help itself only so much and made it 85-81 when Luke Eddy went 1 of 2 from the free-throw line with 57 seconds left.
Finally, the Tribe solved the press. But there was another problem: the free-throw line.
Omar Prewitt went 1 of 2, and Eddy scored on a layup to make it 86-83 with 25.6 seconds left. David Cohn then missed both shots, and Santa Ana’s layup with 5.9 seconds left cut the Tribe’s lead to 86-85.
“It was not a meltdown,” W&M guard Greg Malinowski said. “But it was close to it.”
W&M got the ball in the hands of Dixon, whose two free throws extended the lead to 88-85. Still, Elon got a good look. But Tyler Seibring’s straight-on 26-footer at the horn went in and out.
“I was coming off Santa Ana,” Malinowski said. “(Seibring) was deep and had an open look. Just prayed it didn’t go in.”
It had to be as bad an endgame as any team has gotten away with.
“We certainly tried to give it away down the stretch,” Shaver said. “We have to show more poise down the stretch, that’s for sure.”
There was that, and there was the fact that W&M allowed 16-of-37 shooting from the 3-point arc.
“You see so many things go against you at times, partially our fault,” Shaver said. “But we found a way to win a league game.”
Johnson can be reached by phone at 757-247-4649.
WILLIAM AND MARY 88, ELON 85
ELON (8-8, 0-3 CAA): Dawkins 5-11 0-1 11, Seibring 4-11 2-5 11, Santa Ana 10-13 0-0 29, Swoope 5-12 2-2 15, Thompson 2-6 2-3 6, Kundrotas 0-1 0-0 0, Eddy 3-5 3-4 11, Hairston 1-3 0-0 2. Totals 30-62 9-15 85.
WILLIAM AND MARY (8-6, 2-1): Whitman 4-5 3-8 11, Dixon 11-15 6-6 32, Cohn 2-3 2-4 8, Malinowski 4-9 0-0 11, Prewitt 3-10 1-2 7, Knight 4-5 0-0 9, Rowley 0-2 2-2 2, Burchfield 1-1 0-0 2, Tot 1-1 0-0 2, Pierce 0-2 4-6 4. Totals 30-53 18-28 88.
Half—Elon 44-38. 3-point goals—Elon 16-37 (Santa Ana 9-11, Swoope 3-9, Eddy 2-3, Dawkins 1-4, Seibring 1-6, Kundrotas 0-1, Thompson 0-3), W&M 10-23 (Dixon 4-8, Malinowski 3-5, Cohn 2-2, Knight 1-2, Rowley 0-1, Pierce 0-1, Prewitt 0-4). Fouled out—Thompson. Rebounds—Elon 28 (Seibring 8), W&M 32 (Dixon 8). Assists—Elon 16 (Eddy 5), W&M 18 (Prewitt 5). Fouls—Elon 21, W&M 20. A—2,117.
