SportsCollege

Actions

Tribe top Charleston in Senior Day overtime thriller, clinch first-round bye in CAA Tournament

Posted at 9:02 PM, Feb 24, 2018
and last updated 2018-02-24 21:11:38-05

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. (Tribe Athletics) - The emotional roller coaster of Senior Day took a number of turns on Saturday afternoon at Kaplan Arena, going from excitement to gut-wrenching to jubilation.

Tribe Senior's on Senior Day (Courtesy: Tribe Athletics)

After Charleston's Grant Riller banked in a 35-footer to send the game to overtime, the William & Mary men's basketball team answered the bell in the extra session to pull out a thrilling 114-104 victory.

The Tribe scored 17 of the game's final 22 points to cement the win. Senior guard David Cohn sparked the Tribe effort with a career-high 30 points to go along with nine assists.

W&M (18-11, 11-7 CAA) hit 11-of-12 from the charity stripe over the final minute of regulation and led by six, 90-84, with 28 seconds left. Charleston's Joe Chealey hit a pair 3-pointers, before Riller's buzzer-beating banker tied the game at 95 and gave the contest another five minutes.

Charleston (23-7, 14-4 CAA) led 99-97 less than two minutes into the extra session, but it was all Tribe from there. The Green and Gold used a quick 7-0 run to move in front and outscored the Cougars 17-5 over the final 3:30. After Cohn knotted the game with a step-back jumper, sophomore Matt Milon scored five in a row, including a 3-pointer, to extend the lead to 104-99 with two minutes left. Chealey hit a pair at the charity stripe to draw CofC within three, but sophomore Justin Pierce answered with a driving lay-up, and W&M went 8-of-8 at the free throw line over the final 50 seconds to clinch the Senior Day win.

After a back-and-forth start, the Green and Gold seized control with a 13-2 run. Cohn's 3-pointer at the 6:36 put the Tribe on top, before Milon converted an old-fashion 3-point play. The advantage jumped to 37-28 out of the under four-minute media timeout following a Paul Rowley triple. The Tribe lead reached its pinnacle in the opening 20 minutes in the closing seconds. Cohn pulled down a defensive rebounding and sprinted up court. He dropped it off to senior Connor Burchfield for a half-capping triple, pushing the lead to 44-32.

W&M's advantage reached as much as 16 points, 51-35, out of the locker room thanks to a 7-0 run. The Cougars used a 12-3 spurt to narrow the gap to 72-68 with 7:29 left, and CofC drew within two, 84-82, on a Johnson 3-pointer with 1:22 remaining.