Richmond, Va. - A second-half rally saw the William and Mary men's basketball team surge in front of the host VCU, but the Rams overcame a Tribe overtime lead to eek out a 69-68 victory on Thursday night at the Siegel Center. The Tribe led 68-67 following a Tim Rusthoven lay-up with a minute left in OT, but a driving Darius Theus lay-up with nine second left gave VCU the triumph. W&M fell to 4-15 overall and 2-5 in CAA play, while VCU improved to 14-5 on the year and 5-2 in league action.

Freshman Marcus Thornton led the Green and Gold with 22 points, one off his career-high, to go along with a career-best five rebounds and a 10-of-14 effort from the free throw line. Senior forward Quinn McDowell finished with 15 points on 4-of-8 from the floor and 7-of-8 from the free throw line before fouling out. Sophomore guard Brandon Britt added 11 points, all in the second half, while fellow classmate Tim Rusthoven registered his first career double-double with 10 points and a career-high 12 rebounds.



W&M trailed by eight at the half, but quickly cut the deficit to just four, 34-30, following four straight free throws to open the second half from Thornton and McDowell. The Ram lead jumped back to eight points following a Juvonte Reddic jumper at the 12:33 mark, before the College put together a run to narrow the margin to one. Britt started things with a conventional 3-point play, before senior Kendrix Brown knocked down a triple from the right wing. Thornton canned a jumper, before Brown hit Rusthoven for a cutting fast-break lay-up to close the margin to 42-40 and force a VCU timeout with 9:25 remaining. A McDowell free throw at the nine-minute mark cut the deficit to 42-41.

The Green and Gold pulled even for the first time at 45 on a pair of Thornton free throws at the 7:48 mark. Trailing 52-50 with less than four minutes remaining, Britt hit a 3-pointer from the left wing to beat the shot clock and give the Green and Gold its first lead of the night at the 3:45 mark. The lead bounced back-and-forth for the final three minutes, before Britt's second 3-point play of the contest put the College on top 58-56 with 1:20 left.

On the ensuing Ram possession, Theus, who finished with 12 points, hit a 3-pointer from the left wing, one of just two on the night for VCU, to regain the lead 59-58. McDowell drew a foul on a post up with 51.6 seconds left and calmly knocked down both free throws, giving W&M a 60-59 advantage. Following a VCU timeout with 36.7 seconds remaining, it was again Theus, this time drawing a foul on a drive to the bucket. He hit 1-of-2 from the free throw line to knot the game at 60. Both teams had shots to win it in the final 20 seconds, but neither could find the mark, and the Tribe headed to overtime for the first time this season.

W&M jumped out to the early lead in OT on Thornton bucket, but the Rams hit 3-of-4 from the charity stripe in the opening minute to take a 64-63 lead. A driving Thornton lay-up put the Tribe back on top by one, before Rusthoven drew a foul and made both free throws to give the College a 66-63 advantage with 2:50 left.

Four straight VCU points put the home side back in front, but Thornton dished to Rusthoven for a lay-up to swing the advantage back to the Tribe, 68-67, with one minute left in the extra session. On the final Ram possession, Theus drove the right side of the lane for a lay-up to put VCU back on top 69-68. In the final seconds, Thornton's jumper from the left side was off the mark, and a scrum for the rebound ensued as the buzzer sounded to give VCU the narrow win.

The Tribe finished the game shooting 42.2 percent (19-of-45) from the floor and was 27-of-36 from the free throw line (75 percent). Defensively, the College limited VCU to 34.4 percent (22-of-64) from the floor and just 9.1 percent (2-of-22) from 3-point range. W&M leads the CAA in 3-point percentage defense in conference games only. The Tribe, which struggled with 12 first-half turnovers, did a much better job in the second-half and overtime with only five total turnovers.

Reddic, who finished with a game and career-high 28 points, scored each of VCU's first 11 points as the Rams jumped out to an 11-2 advantage over the College. The margin was 18-8 following a Reddic jumper at the 11:12 mark of the first half, before the College scored seven straight points. Thornton knocked down four free throws on the run, including a pair to close the gap to 18-15 with 7:05 left in the first half.

The College trailed 23-20 following a Thornton jumper at the 5:08 mark, before the Rams went on an 11-4 spurt to push the lead back to 10 points. A Briante Webber steal led to a fast-break lay-up for Theus, putting the Rams on top 34-24 with less than a minute remaining in the opening half. McDowell scored on a lay-up with 22 seconds left for the final points of the stanza, sending the College to the locker room down 34-26.

With Rusthoven battling foul trouble and McDowell eventually fouling out in overtime, the College received impressive minutes from freshman forward Tom Schalk, who hit two big free throws in the second half and pulled down three rebounds in 16 minutes of action. Brown finished with five points and five rebounds. He also tallied an assist, which marked the 200th of his career. Brown becomes one of only 21 players in school history with 200 assists.

W&M will return to action when it hosts the first of two straight home games in a Saturday matinee with UNCW. Tip-off is slated for 2 p.m. at Kaplan Arena. Fans can catch the action over the Tribe Radio Network with Jay Colley, Bill McDonald and Charlie Woollum on the call. The Tide 92.3 FM in Williamsburg is the flagship station of the Tribe Radio Network and the broadcast can be heard over the Internet at TribeAthletics.com. The Tribe Athletics TV video stream can also be purchased at the home for W&M sports.