William & Mary 97, VMI 67
William & Mary forward Tim Rusthoven found the end-to-end pressure of Virginia Military Institute to his liking Wednesday night. The senior scored a career-high 26 points, grabbed 16 rebounds and dished out five assists in the Tribe's 97-67 victory at Kaplan Arena in Williamsburg, Va.
On a night when Tribe guard Marcus Thornton, the Colonial Athletic Association scoring leader, took only three shots in the first 28 minutes, the 6-foot-9 Rusthoven compensated. Rusthoven received help from reserve guard Omar Prewitt, who scored a career-high 22 points, and guard Terry Tarpey, who contributed 10 points, nine rebounds, and six steals.
Thornton finished with 11 points, half his average, but extended his string of double-digit games to 38 as William & Mary scored its most points in regulation since a 99-86 win at James Madison on Jan. 28, 2004.
William & Mary (3-3) went ahead for good 64 seconds into the game and led by as many as 21 points in the first half and 33 in the second.
The best stretch for VMI (4-3) came at the end of the first half when it went on a 16-4 run and whittled the deficit to seven points. But the Tribe held the Keydets without a field goal for a 4:41 span early in the second half and regained their hefty advantage.
VMI was led by reserve forward Trey Chapman (16 points) and guard Rodney Glasgow (15 points). Freshman guard QJ Peterson had 12 points and 11 rebounds, but he hit only four of 17 shots in failing to reach his average of 24.2 points per game, which leads the Big South Conference.
In a furious span of 4:38 in the first half, William & Mary went on a 21-4 run fueled by two 3-pointers from Prewitt, a freshman who finished 5-for-7 from beyond the arc.
