Nearly halfway through the first half, William & Mary led Norfolk State 15-11 in what had been a sloppy affair. The Tribe had been successful in turning over the Spartans with its pressure, forcing Norfolk State into poor decisions. But the Tribe was unable to turn its transition opportunities into scores on the other end.
Then the shots started to fall.
Three straight possessions: Miles Hicks found Kyle Frazier for a three from the left wing. Hicks then dropped a bounce pass to Finn Lally for a triple. And after some good ball movement, Keller Boothby made the extra pass to Lally for another three-ball.
Kaplan finally started to come alive for the first time this season.
The Tribe’s 84-73 win over the Spartans was never meaningfully in doubt after that. W&M extended the lead to 47-32 at the half and as much as 24 points in the second frame. The Tribe had several spurts like the one that put them in the drivers’ seat throughout the game, in a showcase of what head coach Brian Earl’s offense can look like when it’s humming.
“Making shots is important,” Earl said. “We hadn’t made a lot of shots. They were open, and we’re going to take them. So when three go in, that’s 9 points really quick and it can put some energy into guys. I thought we were playing really hard from the beginning and shots weren’t falling, but that’s the way it’s going to go sometimes.”
Late in the first half, Norfolk State switched to a 3-2 zone to try to slow down the Tribe offense. While it did succeed in limiting W&M’s opportunities in transition, it didn’t stop the Tribe from having success offensively. After a few possessions of feeling it out, the Tribe began finding the holes in the center of the zone, kicking out for open threes and getting second and third chances at the bucket.
However, the 1-3-1 zone that the Spartans threw at W&M in the second half did give the Tribe some trouble. The ball was stagnant and the Tribe struggled to get into the paint. Some well-timed threes kept W&M afloat, however. Kyle Frazier was 5-of-8 from three, including 3-of-3 in the second half.
“Coach has surrounded this team with amazing shooters like Gabe [Dorsey], Keller [Boothby] and [Kyle Pulliam],” said Frazier. “It just makes my job easier, making shots, since we have so many weapons around the three-point line.”
Notable is that W&M did this while shooting 45% from the field and 35% from three. This wasn’t a team catching fire from behind the arc or riding an unsustainable offensive performance. The team’s most proven shooter — Gabe Dorsey — didn’t even hit a three until the 8:10 mark of the second half, and finished 2-of-11 from three.
Instead, the Tribe ended the night with 7 more field goal attempts than Norfolk State. They did it by forcing 13 turnovers and collecting 16 offensive rebounds.
W&M also put up a whopping 46 attempts from behind the arc — tied for the most in a single game in program history. Norfolk State only shot 14 threes.
Despite the Tribe’s 24-point cushion in the second half, the game did get interesting for a minute or two down the stretch. Norfolk State reeled off a 12-1 run to pull themselves within 13, 74-61, with a little over six minutes remaining. But W&M responded with scores on three straight possessions, including threes by Malachi Ndur and Gabe Dorsey, to put the game away for good.
“A lot of times people have said, ‘you slowed it down, you didn’t cross the finish line,’” Earl said. “We’re trying to win. So a one-point win, or an 11-point win, or a 30-point win, no one cares a year from now. It’s just a win.”
This weekend, W&M heads to Rock Hill, S.C., for the Rock Hill Classic and will play three games in three days. Winthrop is up first, one of the better teams in the Big South. It might be a bit early for “measuring stick” games, but the Tribe will see where it stacks up with a mid-major conference contender.