WILLIAMSBURG, Va. – William and Mary men's basketball junior Terry Tarpey recoded the first triple-double in program history in leading the Tribe to an 81-73 win over the James Madison Dukes on Saturday afternoon at Kaplan Arena. Tarpey finished with 18 points, 11 rebounds and a career-best 10 assists to become the seventh player in Division I this season and first in the 110-year history of W&M basketball to record a triple-double. The Tribe improved to 9-6 overall and 3-1 in CAA action, while the Dukes dropped to 9-8 and 2-2 in league play.

Not to be outdone, senior guard Marcus Thornton enjoyed another stellar outing, turning in a 27-point, seven-rebound, five-assist stat line. He was 7-of-11 from 3-point range and the seven rebounds were a career-high. With his 27 points, Thornton moved into fourth place on the Tribe's career scoring list passing Keith Cieplicki (1982-85) with 1,816 points. Along with his triple-double, Tarpey was 6-of-7 from the free throw line to go along with two blocked shots and four steals.

After JMU scored the opening bucket of the game, W&M put together a pair of seven-point spurts around another Duke basket to open up an early 10-point lead. Sophomore Daniel Dixon got things started for the Tribe with a 3-pointer from the right wing, before Tarpey scored four straight to give  the Tribe a 7-2 lead and force a JMU timeout at the 16:11 mark.

Andre Nation knocked down a jumper for the Dukes, but junior Sean Sheldon answered with a pair of free throws to kick start another Tribe run. Thornton hit his first 3-pointer from the right wing on the break, before a driving Tarpey lay-up staked the Tribe to a 14-4 lead with 14 minutes left in the opening half.

Five straight points from JMU freshman Winston Grays cut the gap to five but back-to-back 3-pointers from Thornton pushed the lead to 25-16 with 7:49 remaining. The Dukes responded with a 13-4 run to draw even for the first time. JMU scored six straight, including a lay-up from Tom Vodanovich at the 2:34 to tie the game at 29. 

Thornton knocked down his fourth 3-point of the opening half from the left side to put the Tribe back in front, and the Green and Gold led 32-31 at the break. In the opening 20 minutes, Thornton scored 14 of the Tribe's 32 points.

W&M tallied the opening four points of the second half to push the lead to five. Sophomore Omar Prewitt found Tarpey for a lay-up, before Dixon knocked down a jumper. After JMU cut it to 40-37 on a Paulius Satkus lay-up, the Tribe scored five straight to extend it to lead to eight. Prewitt knocked down a jumper, and Thornton drilled a triple in transition to make it 45-37 with 13:50 left.

The Tribe advantage reached nine on a Greg Malinowski 3-pointer, but was just 50-46 after a Yohanny Dalembert lay-up. Thornton answered with back-to-back 3-pointers, the second in transition from Tarpey, to push the lead to 10, 56-46, with 9:17 to play.

JMU scored five straight to close to within five points, but W&M responded with a 12-2 run to push the margin to its largest. Thornton found Tarpey in transition for a hoop and some harm going into the under-eight minute media timeout. Tarpey completed the old-fashion 3-point play out of the break, and then found redshirt freshman Jack Whitman for a dunk on the ensuing Tribe possession to extend the lead back to double digits.

After a Duke bucket, freshman Connor Burchfield knocked down a triple from the left side to push it to 11. Thornton found Tarpey for another fastbreak lay-up and then knocked down a pair of free throws at the 4:25 mark to give W&M a 68-53 lead.

The Dukes would not go quietly using an 11-2 run to cut the gap to 70-64 with 1:38 to play on a Jackson Kent 3-pointer. The Tribe, though, answered by hitting seven of its final eight free throws, and Prewitt added a couple of punctuation fast-break dunks to secure the victory.

W&M finished the game shooting 45.2 percent (28-of-62) from the floor and 41.7 percent (10-of-24) from 3-point range. The Tribe was also 15-of-19 (78.9 percent) from the free throw line, including a 12-of-13 clip (92.3 percent) in the second half. W&M dished out 18 assists on 28 made field goals, blocked 10 shots and outrebounding JMU, 37-33. Sheldon finished with eight points, four rebounds and a career-high four blocked shots, while Prewitt added eight points, seven rebounds, two blocked shots and two steals in the victory.

The Dukes shot 48.3 percent (29-of-60) from the field, including 50 percent (16-of-32) in the second half. JMU knocked down 7-of-16 (43.8 percent) from 3-point range and were 8-of-12 (66.7 percent) from the free throw line. Despite shooting 5-of-18 from the floor, Ron Curry lead JMU with 14 points and four assists. Kent added 13 points, eight rebounds and four assists, while Grays chipped in 13 off the bench.

The Tribe continues its home stand when it welcomes UNCW to Kaplan Arena on Wednesday, Jan. 14. Tip-off is slated for 7 p.m. and the game will be streamed for FREE in HD on Tribe Athletics TV via TribeAthletics.com. The contest can also be heard over the Tribe Radio Network with Jay Colley and Charlie Woollum on the call. The Tide 92.3 FM and 107.9 Bach FM are the flagship stations of the Tribe Radio Network and the audio feed will also be available at TribeAthletics.com.