WILLIAMSBURG — Not so long ago, 23% shooting from the 3-point arc would have been hard for William & Mary to overcome. But this is a different team — which isn’t to say the Tribe has thrown out the old playbook.

To be clear, W&M still likes to shoot the 3. But Sunday afternoon in Kaplan Arena, it was the Tribe’s production closer to the basket that produced an 88-75 win over Old Dominion before 3,424.

In winning its fifth consecutive game, W&M (7-2) outscored the Monarchs 42-34 in the paint. The Tribe was 24 of 36 inside the 3-point arc, 18 of 24 near the rim, with La Salle transfer Tunde Vahlberg Fasasi scoring most of his career-high 25 points there.

“Last year, we had one of the greatest shooters in college basketball,” said Tribe coach Brian Earl, referring to Gabe Dorsey. “And people knew what he was going to do. With the way these guys play together, they’ll take what you give them.

“We take our cues from the players we have. And some of these guys prefer to spread the floor and get to the rim. … In the end, I don’t care. I like watching 3s go in, but I like watching 2s go in. Today was mostly 2s.”

W&M also got a career afternoon from Kilian Brockhoff, a transfer from Saint Louis who finished with 21 points on only seven shots (and 9-of-10 free-throw shooting). He also had eight rebounds and five assists.

Jo’el Emanuel, a transfer from Fairleigh Dickinson, added 16 points on five baskets at the rim and six free throws. Chase Lowe had 15 points, with all of his baskets coming in the paint.

The Tribe shot 50% overall from the field and 25 of 30 from the free-throw line. W&M had 20 assists (Lowe led with seven) with 12 turnovers.

ODU (3-6) trailed most of the way but didn’t go away quietly. W&M led 45-31 2 ½ minutes into the second half, but the Monarchs responded with a 12-0 run on four possessions. Jordan Battle had six of his 24 points in that stretch, which cut the Tribe’s lead to 45-43.

But after two Battle free throws cut the deficit to 49-48, W&M went on a 13-2 run to make it a double-digit lead again.

“Obviously, they always have five guys on the court for the most part who can shoot the ball,” ODU coach Mike Jones said. “We did a good job in stretches of limiting the backdoor cuts and being able to close out properly so they had to take tough, contested
shots.

“Then, when we didn’t, they made us pay every single time. Every breakdown we had they took advantage of.”

The Tribe got the win despite missing guards Reese Miller and Kyle Pulliam, its two leading scorers, who are out with injuries. Earl isn’t certain how soon they’ll be back.

“Kyle got whacked pretty good in the eye, and Reese wrenched his leg a little bit,” Earl said. “They’ll start feeling better, but we don’t want to rush them back.

“It’s a long season, and this is the beginning. When they feel better, I think we’ll be comfortable getting them back in.”

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