WILLIAMSBURG — Everything was in place for a celebration at William and Mary. Big crowd. TV audience. Best player in school history poised to culminate his career by leading the program to a conference title and No. 1 seed in the CAA tournament on his way out the door.
Somebody forgot to tell Drexel. The Tribe couldn’t stop the Dragons from raiding the fridge, draining the hot tub and doing donuts on the front lawn in an 80-66 buzzkill Saturday in the regular-season finale at Kaplan Arena.
“Disappointing night, that’s for sure,” Tribe coach Tony Shaver said. “Not what we hoped for. Great crowd, great environment. A lot on the line for us, and we didn’t play as well as we had hoped. But I would very quickly give Drexel great credit. They were terrific today.
“All the tough things that have happened to their club recently, and to come in here and play as well as they did was impressive. Shot the lights out, beat us on the boards, but they just made plays, they really made plays.”
The Tribe (18-11, 12-6 CAA) went from controlling its own destiny to awaiting the result of the UNC Wilmington-Elon game Saturday night, in advance of next week’s conference tournament in Baltimore.
Elon defeated UNCW 74-55, leaving the Tribe and UNCW among four teams tied atop the standings. W&M is the No. 1 seed by virtue of sweeping the season series against UNCW and holding the tiebreaker among all four teams. As conference champion, the Tribe also earns an NIT bid if it doesn’t win the CAA tournament.
Senior guard Marcus Thornton scored 19 points in his final home game, but the Tribe played from behind virtually the entire game, as Drexel (11-18, 9-9 CAA) made shots and seemed to grab every key rebound at both ends of the floor.
“I told the guys, actually this was probably one of the best wins of my career,” Dragons coach Bruiser Flint said. “All the things that have been going on this season have been ridiculous. They’re playing for first place. Marcus Thornton’s career ended — one of the best players I’ve coached against since I’ve been in this league.
“I told them, you all came to win today, that was the bottom line. You all came to win. We did exactly what we talked about doing. We made some shots, which we usually don’t make, and I told the guys, the effort was unbelievable.”
The Dragons dressed just seven players and played six. Four players played 40 minutes. Guard Freddie Wilson (24 points) had a career high. Running mate Tavon Allen (22 points) scored a season high. The two combined to hit 11 3-pointers.
Forward Rodney Williams (18 points, 9 rebounds) provided an inside presence, and the Dragons’ three-man inside rotation combined for 30 points and 25 rebounds.
“We knew they had some capable shooters,” Thornton said. “We didn’t want to let them get off to a hot start and get confidence. We knew they were undermanned, so we just wanted to play solid defense and have a better start. But we did let them get hot and I think that boosted their confidence, and they just continued to hit big shots during the course of the game, every time we made runs to come back. So it’s on us.”
One bright spot for the Tribe was the return of wing Daniel Dixon, who missed the past five games with a hamstring injury. The 6-5 sophomore isn’t full-go, but scored 14 points and made four 3-pointers.
Drexel shot its way to a 37-21 halftime lead, hitting seven 3-pointers and shooting 50 percent overall. In the second half, the Tribe was within nine points on three occasions, but the Dragons responded twice with second-chance points after offensive rebounds and with another point-blank shot.
Saturday should have been the second meeting between the conference’s two leading candidates for Player of the Year — Thornton and Drexel’s Damion Lee. But Lee broke a bone in his hand a week earlier against Northeastern, extending his and the Dragons’ almost biblical run of buzzard’s luck in recent years.
Drexel had seven players miss extended time this season, with four season-ending injuries. The Dragons finally gained traction and some consistency with a six-game win streak in late January and early February.
But they came to Williamsburg having lost four in a row, and the injuries to Lee and promising freshman Sammy Mojica left them with just three guards. Five of the seven available players were freshmen and sophomores. They managed just 44 points in a Thursday loss to Delaware.
The Dragons responded with their second-highest point total of the season — they scored 85 in a win versus UNCW. And Saturday’s result represented a 40-point turnaround from the first meeting, a 73-47 William and Mary win in Philly on Jan. 5 in which the Tribe dismantled them.
Four of the Tribe’s six CAA losses were to teams in the bottom five of the conference. Two of those came at home, against Delaware and Drexel.
“Very disappointing,” Shaver said, “but we will move forward very quickly. We really will. Everything we hoped for this year is in front of us. We have to learn from this situation. I would like to have handled this moment better than we did. But if we do it in the right way, it will help us in the tournament prepare for those moments again.”
Fairbank can be reached by phone at 757-247-4637.
CAA tournament schedule
In Baltimore, Md.
Friday, March 6
First round
No. 9 Towson vs. No. 8 Elon, 6 p.m.
No. 10 College of Charleston vs. No. 7 Drexel, 8:30 p.m.
Saturday, March 7
Quarterfinals
Towson-Elon winner vs. No. 1 William and Mary, noon
No. 5 Hofstra vs. No. 4 James Madison, 2:30 p.m.
CofC-Drexel winner vs. No. 2 UNC Wilmington, 6
No. 6 Delaware vs. No. 3 Northeastern, 8:30
Sunday, March 8
Semifinals at 2:30 and 5 p.m.
Monday, March 9
Championship game, 7 p.m.
