Williamsburg, Va. - The William and Mary men's basketball team fell to Old Dominion, 70-51, on Wednesday night at Kaplan Arena. The College weathered an early ODU storm, but the Monarchs closed the opening half on a 12-point run to seize control of the contest. W&M dropped to 4-22 on the year and 2-12 in CAA play, while the Monarchs improved to 16-10 overall and 11-3 in league action.

Freshman guard Marcus Thornton led the Tribe with eight points to go along with a career-high six rebounds. Senior forward Quinn McDowell finished with seven points, while junior guard Matt Rum added seven points and two assists. Riddled with foul trouble, sophomore Tim Rusthoven finished with five points and a team-high seven rebounds in just 16 minutes of play.

Sophomore walk-on guard Ben Whitlatch came off the bench, hitting 2-of-3 from 3-point range to finish with a career-best six points. Senior guard Kendrix Brown tallied a pair of steals to become the 16th player in W&M history with 100 career steals. Combined with his assist total, Brown is one of just 13 players in Tribe history with 200 career assists and 100 career steals.



Old Dominion started the game off on fire, hitting its first eight shots of the game, and broke open an 8-7 contest with 13 straight points. Trian Iliadis' third 3-pointer of the first half gave the Monarchs a 21-7 advantage with 14:48 remaining in the opening frame. The College scored six straight points on back-to-back lay-ups from McDowell and sophomore Julian Boatner, before two free throws from Brown cut the deficit to 21-13 less than three minutes later.

The Monarch lead ballooned back to 14 points, 27-13, following Nick Wright's eighth 3-pointer of the season at the 8:43 mark. W&M answered with a 9-2 spurt to close the gap to single digits. McDowell and Boatner connected on 3-pointers, before a pair of McDowell free throws cut the margin to 29-22 with 4:52 left. W&M had chances to draw closer, but the Tribe misfired on a pair of 3-pointers and had a 1-and-1 free throw opportunity spin out with the ODU lead at seven points.

ODU closed the half on a 12-point spurt as Dimitri Batten canned a pair of 3-pointers, and Kent Bazemore wrapped up the first-half scoring with a free throw line jumper to send the away side to the locker room with a 41-22 advantage. W&M could get no closer than 19 points in the second half.

W&M struggled to shoot the ball, hitting just 28.8 percent (15-of-52) from the floor. The College connected on six 3-pointers and finished 15-of-22 from the free throw line. Old Dominion finished the contest at 50.9 percent (27-of-53) from the field, including 9-of-24 from 3-point range. ODU held a slim 37-32 advantage on the glass. Wright led ODU with 14 point and a team-best eight rebounds, while Iliadis added 11 points, all in the first half. Bazemore just missed a double-double with 10 points and nine assists. With the win, ODU also takes five points in the Optima Health Challenge and leads the all-sports series at 50-30.

The Tribe returns to action when it hosts Northeastern on Saturday, Feb. 11. Tip-off is slated for 7 p.m. at Kaplan Arena and the contest will be shown on ESPN3.com. 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 Web at TribeAthletics.com.