CAA Tournament: Delaware, William & Mary to Meet in Finals

PARTY CRASHERS: William & Mary Edges Towson, Earns Third Surprise Trip to CAA Finals in 7 Years

Mar 9, 2014; Baltimore, MD, USA; William and Mary Tribe players cheer on the bench in the first half against the Towson Tigers during the Colonial Athletic Conference basketball tournament at Mariner Bank Arena. Mandatory Credit: Evan Habeeb-USA TODAY Sports

BALTIMORE — After the William & Mary Tribe rallied from 15 points down to beat the College of Charleston on Saturday, head coach Tony Shave warned everyone about his team’s chances in its Colonial Athletic Association semifinal matchup against the CAA preseason favorite Towson Tigers.

“Towson’s really good,” he said. “But so are we, and we’re looking forward to the opportunity,” he said

Shaver was slightly wrong.

William & Mary (20-11, 12-6 CAA) wasn’t just good. The third-seeded Tribe was slightly better than the second-seeded Tigers (23-10, 14-4 CAA), while stopping the league’s best player when it counted most, to advance to its third CAA finals in the past seven years, with a thrilling 75-71 victory at Baltimore Arena on Sunday.

Jerrelle Benimon, the reigning two-time CAA Player of the Year, scored 18 points and grabbed five rebounds, but the CAA’s fifth-leading scorer, Maryland native Marcus Thornton, matched Benimon’s 7-of-13 shooting and led all scorers with 21 points, while making some difficult shots down the stretch.

Thornton also coolly sank a pair of free throws with 4.9 seconds left, to seal the win, after Benimon’s teammates missed two free throws in the final 2:40 and immediately following Benimon driving and getting stripped with a chance to tie the game.

“We’re pretty excited, there’s no question about that,” Shaver said, before extolling the play of Thornton (a junior guard) and senior guard Brandon Britt, who scored 16 points on 6-of-10 shooting.

“It’s the third time in seven years [we’re going] to the CAA Championship Game. I think that’s something that a lot of people don’t realize. We’re very proud of that and very proud of [Thornton and Britt]… these guys will make you a pretty good coach, I’ll tell you that.”

Admittedly, Thornton showed more emotion than usual during the win.

“Semifinals, on the big stage, bright lights… you’ve got to get excited at stuff like that,” he said. “I’m not always the most emotional guy but… we make this nice run this season. It’s exciting.”

Adding to that, Shaver said, “Marcus and these guys are finally learning that it’s oaky to show emotion. Cool’s okay, but emotion’s not a bad thing too.”

In a well-played game that would have been befitting of the league title game, the Tribe shot 55 percent (27-for-49) and the Tigers, 50 percent (25-for-50).

Each squad also made half of its 3s, with William & Mary going 11-for-22, and Towson 7-for-14.

The shooting was particularly good in the second half, when the Tribe went 15-for-25 (60 percent) and the Tigers even surpassing that by going 13-for-20 (65 percent).

“I thought it was an extremely high level basketball game,” Shaver said. “I thought both teams played well. Both teams made big-time shots. From a competitive spirit [and] nature, it’s hard to envision guys playing any harder than we did tonight and I think their team as well.”

After William & Mary scored the first give points, neither team led by more than four points until a pair of free throws by senior guard Mike Burwell (17 points, 13 in the first half) gave Towson its biggest lead of the game, 35-29, with 2:28 left in the opening half.

But a 7-1 run by the Tribe ended the frame with the game’s 10th tie, at 36-36.

Consecutive layups by Thornton and Britt extended that spurt to 19-5 and gave William & Mary a game-high 48-40 lead with 15:46 left.

Meanwhile, the Tribe started to keep the Tigers from getting second chances.

“That was the one thing really holding us back,” Shaver said. “They had nine offensive rebounds in the first half, three in the second half. We really manned up and did a great job on the glass in the second half — the difference in the ballgame.”

Following its big run spanning each half, William & Mary never trailed again, even though an 18-11 run brought Towson to within 59-58, with 7:14 to play.

A Britt 3-pointer pushed the lead to 65-60 before Benimon and senior forward (10 points, five rebounds) traded baskets on four straight trips.

Senior forward Kyle Gaillard (12 points) then scored on a layup to put the Tribe up, 71-66, with 3:48 to go.

“Kyle was tremendous tonight,” Shaver said. “If we gave out an MVP award, it would probably go to him. He was terrific in his defense on Benimon tonight, 5-for-5 on the offensive end… that’s a guy that’s really playing at a new level for us right now.”

Four straight points by the Tigers — on a 3-pointer by senior guard Rafriel Guthrie (13 points) and a free throw by sophomore forward Timajh Parker-Rivera (seven points) closed the gap to 71-10, with 2:40 remaining.

However, Parker-Rivera missed a second foul shot with a chance to tie the game at that point, just before Thornton hit another tough jumper — moving to his right, shooting to his left — to give William & Mary a 73-70 lead.

“This league is full of great guards,” Burwell said. “Marcus Thornton, my hat’s off to him. He hit a lot of tough shots — contested 3s, pull-up jumpers, he just made a lot of tough shots.”

Like Parker-Rivera did, Guthrie also missed the second of two free throws, and the Tigers trailed, 73-71, with 2:08 left.

Neither team would score again until Benimon was stopped in the lane and Thornton’s free throws closed the scoring.

“We usually pull games out,” Benimon said. “We kept throwing punches and they kept hitting crazy, tough 3s. We couldn’t get a break, but we still had a shot at the end, and we just couldn’t capitalize.”

Crediting the help given to sophomore guard Terry Tarpey (seven points, game-high four assists), Shaver said, “On that last possession, our team defense was perfect. Guys were in the right spot, Terry made a great play. But if Benimon had seen space, Terry would have been in trouble. So really, five [guys] did stop that play.”

Explaining his thought process on the play, Benimon said, “I got to the spot, I was right there, and I usually never get stripped. I usually have strong hands… I was at the rim, I should have finished it.”

“I’d like to chime in, too,” added head coach Pat Skerry. “I would hope he would do a hundred out of a hundred times what he did — drive the ball to the rim and try to score or go get fouled. I thought it was the exact right play. If we had to do it over again, we do the same thing over and over.”

On the overall job done with containing Benimon, Shaver added, “He had 18 points and five rebounds, which is a pretty good night for most people, but I thought we did a great job on him.”

Not that the task was easy to keep Benimon (who attempted just two free throws, making both) or his teammates off of the foul line, especially after Towson, the CAA’s leader in free throw attempts, shot a school-record 61 during its quarterfinal win over James Madison a day earlier.

So, what helped with that?

“New officials,” Shaver joked before getting more serious. “Our approach was, we know they’re going to bang us. But if our hands are up, we’re going to get our share of those calls. If our hands are down, we’re never going to get that call.”

Another point of emphasis was not to let any Tigers become unsung heroes, the way reserve guard Four McGlynn was while scoring a game-high 21 points against James Madison.

“One thing we talked about, is we can’t let their complimentary players beat us, and we were pretty good in those areas.” Against Towson, McGlynn was held to a mere three points on 1-for-4 shooting.

Teary-eyed, Skerry said, “I don’t think it was a lack of effort on our part. We didn’t have the type of night we normally have defensively… [but] I thought they made some tough shots. We expected it be a 40-minute war, and it was. Unlike 23 other nights when we were victorious, we felt like we were running in sand a lot… we just couldn’t get over the hump.”

Yet Skerry also put a larger picture into perspective for a program that went just 1-31 while becoming the first (and only) team (to date) to go winless during the CAA schedule prior to Benimon’s arrival.

Speaking specifically of Benimon and Burwell, as they say on either side of him, Skerry said, “Two years ago, when they watched us lose 31 games, I don’t think they thought [they’d] play a meaningful game in March. They’ve meant everything in getting [our] program off the mat. I feel for those guys. The goal for every player is to get into the NCAA tournament. We won’t… but we’ll be in some tournament… the NIT, CBI, CIT… and hopefully win [more] games.”

As for the NBA scouts who were at many of his games throughout the season, Benimon isn’t quite ready to think of his future.

“I won’t think about it for a little bit,” he said. “Hopefully we keep playing, and then we’ll see what happens. Everybody hates losing, I mean, I’m the biggest sore loser. I’ll appreciate it eventually. It was a tough season. I had a good season, I had fun, but it’s a tough loss… I’ll look back, talk to friends about it, how we turned this program around in the future. Probably in the next couple weeks, we’ll talk about how much fun we had this season and how the culture of the program has changed.”

While Towson waits to see where it will be headed next, William & Mary will face top-seeded Delaware during a CAA final on Monday night in which the winner will earn its first CAA tournament crown.