Despite struggling defensively at times, William & Mary ended a three-game losing streak Thursday night with a 97-89 victory over last-place North Carolina A&T before 3,241 at Kaplan Arena.
Tunde Vahlberg Fasasi sparked W&M (12-6, 3-3) with 19 points, six rebounds, five assists and four steals in a balanced attack as the Tribe got back to .500 in the Coastal Athletic Association. Reese Miller came off the bench to score 19 points, while Kilian Brockhoff had 15 points and six rebounds. Jhei-R Jones added 13 points.
The fast-paced game featured excellent field-goal shooting: 59% (32 of 54) by A&T and 58% (33 of 57) by W&M. Both teams sank two-thirds of their shots in the second half.
The Aggies (7-9, 0-5) were 8 of 18 from 3-point range, while the Tribe was 9 of 16 from beyond the arc. W&M produced 28 assists, the fifth-most in school history.
A&T’s Lewis Walker poured in a career-high 33 points, almost double his average, on 11-of-14 shooting but had six of the Aggies’ 18 turnovers. W&M had just 10.
Trent Middleton scored 20 and Zamoku Weluche-Ume 15 for A&T.
The Aggies’ last lead was 9-8, and W&M pulled ahead by as many as 12 in the first half. But a 10-3 closing run reduced the Tribe’s margin to 42-40 at halftime.
W&M started the second half by moving ahead 55-45 and 59-48. But the Aggies pulled to 67-64 on a Walker layup and free throw with 9:31 remaining.
A Miller 3-pointer started the Tribe on the way to a 77-66 margin, and the lead stayed at least five until the final buzzer.
W&M will get a week off before next Thursday’s anticipated home encounter with first-place UNC Wilmington (16-2, 5-0). A realistic goal for the Tribe is to climb into the top four, which would mean W&M would need the minimum number of victories (three) to win the March 6-10 conference tournament title in Washington and reach its first NCAA Tournament.
https://www.pilotonline.com/2026/01/15/william-mary-men-outlast-nc-at-to-end-slide-at-3/
