Well, that was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad game. It was bad in the sense that the Tribe lost by more than 20 points to a team most expected William and Mary to beat. However, when evaluating exactly what went wrong, it’s even worse that the No Bid Nation crew couldn’t stop listing reasons. What are you going to do when you can’t shoot the three ball, can’t finish at the rim, can’t rebound, can’t defend in the paint and can’t hold on to the ball?
The game started out scoreless for almost three minutes as both teams continued to turn the ball over. From there, High Point took over; the Panthers rattled off 14 unanswered and never looked back. A pair of free throws by Mehkel Harvey with 8:30 to go in the first half got the Tribe within 10, but error after error led to a 16-point deficit at halftime and a 22-point deficit at the buzzer.
In general, this kind of loss was always going to come. William and Mary has yet to string together two solid halves of basketball, and an epic comeback at George Washington and an implosion by Hampton distracted us from some of the real challenges the Tribe will face this season. William and Mary is not this bad, but we will struggle at times no doubt.
Final score: High Point 71, W&M 49
- All the credit to High Point for coming in with a clear identity offensively and defensively. They bullied us on the boards and completely neutralized Yuri Covington and Luke Loewe driving to the basket.
- The one positive: Loewe is a professional, through thick and thin. Despite being neutralized for most of the game, he showed grit once again.
- The Tribe set the tone for the game by batting the opening tip-off out of bounds, one of 12 first-half turnovers for the Green and Gold. Offensive jitters were pervasive across the entire team. Absolutely no one could make a basket in that first half.
- Covington and Thornton Scott were especially to blame for many of the offensive misfires, accounting for nine of the Tribe’s 14 turnovers.
- Scott’s performance in particular was surprising. He shot 0-of-7 from the field, tallied ZERO assists and played for only 19 minutes. You need a little bit more from your main playmaker. One has to wonder how much Scott’s ankle is still bothering him?
- The Tribe has to shoulder most of the blame together. The offense looked stale, lacked movement and presence inside, and too often turned to driving to the basket and forcing contested shots after it was clear the three-ball was not going to fall.
- I’m not going to worry so much about the uncharacteristically bad shooting from the team today, it was just an unlucky night. The lack of patience and vision from the players does worry me. The team is playing with a lack of cohesion.
- Though it is hard to disentangle the game plan from the player performance, this was not Dane Fischer’s best game, either. Five of the first six shots from the Tribe were from beyond the arc, despite High Point allowing an opponent 2P FG% of 60 percent. There seemed to be no answers once the three-point shooting and drives to the basket were taken off the table.
- Why did we not utilize Quinn Blair and others to cut to the basket? Even if Scott could not continue in the game, Loewe is also a good passer. The Tribe will need some Plan B’s. We cannot rely on three-point shooting for every game.
- I’ll finish saying that weakness in the paint on both sides of the court is becoming a common theme through the Tribe’s first four games. And it is not surprising that this is an area of trouble given Nathan Knight’s departure.
- In this game, the Tribe had a defensive rebound percentage of 64.5 percent. League average is 74 percent. William and Mary currently ranks 281st out of 323 in this category. High Point, meanwhile, only ranks 217th.
- Lots to learn from this game for the young core of this team. Let’s hope this is out of their system before conference play begins. In Fischer we trust.
And now I’m going to watch “A Christmas Story” to brighten the mood! Anyone with me? I think this is finally the year I get a Red Ryder BB gun and a Tribe March Madness berth!