WILLIAMSBURG, Va. – For just the second time in the last 60 years, William & Mary basketball is 4-0. On Friday night in its home debut, the Tribe shot 54.5 percent and put the clamps on Hampton in the second half on the way to a 78-65 victory over the visiting Pirates inside Kaplan Arena.
 
Senior Andy Van Vliet and graduate student Bryce Barnes led the way with career-high performances. Van Vliet recorded his second double-double in the last three games with career bests of 22 points and 12 rebounds. He was 10-of-13 from the floor. Barnes, who tallied the game-winning lay-up with 3.8 seconds left at Wofford on Tuesday night, scored 17 of his career-high 21 points in the first half and tied his best assists total with seven.
 
Since 1960, the Tribe started 4-0 only one other time in 1992-93, and head coach Dane Fischer became just the third W&M coach to start his career 4-0 and the first since 1943-44.
 
Barnes ignited things early by scoring 10 of W&M's first 17 points, but the Hampton (2-1) duo of Jermaine Marrow and Ben Stanley combined for eight points during a 10-0 Pirates run to take a 19-17 lead midway through the opening half. Marrow (30) and Stanley (20) combined for 50 of Hampton's 65 points on the night, but Marrow, the nation's active career scoring leader with over 2,000 points, needed 29 shots to reach his game-high 30.
 
W&M led by seven at the intermission thanks to scoring 11 of the first half's final 15 points. Barnes recorded the team's final seven, including a 3-pointer in the closing seconds, to send the Tribe to the locker room with a 39-32 advantage.
 
Hampton hit five of its first seven shots in the second half and closed to within 47-46 with 15:20 remaining on a pair of Ed Oliver-Hampton free throws.
 
The Tribe responded on the defensive end, holding the Pirates without a field goal for nearly seven minutes to spark at 14-1 run. HU hit just six of its final 21 chances from the field (28.6%) and finished the game at 37.7% (26-of-69) overall.
 
Van Vliet and sophomore guard Thornton Scott highlighted the decisive run with 12 of the team's 14 points as W&M established a double-digit lead it would not relinquish. Scott knocked down two of his four 3-pointers during the stretch, and Van Vliet's bucket with 8:40 remaining extended the Tribe lead to 61-47.
 
How It Happened
- W&M used a 9-0 run to open up its first lead. Van Vliet scored four-straight followed by a Luke Loewe corner 3 and Barnes driving layup to extend the W&M cushion to 14-7 just over three and a half minutes into the contest.  
- The lead reached 17-9 after a Barnes' and-1 fast-break dunk at the 15:40 mark. He scored 10 of W&M's first 17 points.
- The Pirates responded with a 10-0 run to take the lead. Marrow and Stanley tallied four apiece on the run, and Stanley's jump hook with 10:28 left to put the visitors on top, 19-17.
- W&M moved back in front thanks to an 11-3 run, including six straight to give the home team a 28-22 lead with 6:16 left. Senior Nathan Knight scored four of the Tribe's final six, while Van Vliet added four as well during the overall run.
- The Pirates scored six in a row to pull even at 28 on Stanly's dunk off a feed from Marrow at the 3:55 mark.
- The Tribe scored 11 of the final 15 points of the half to take the lead into the locker room. Barnes registered the Tribe's final seven, including a triple in the closing seconds, to give W&M a 39-32 cushion at the break.
- Hampton closed to within a point, 47-46, on a pair of Oliver-Hampton free throws at the 15:20 mark. Marrow (5) and Oliver-Hampton (6) combined for 11 of Hampton's first 14 points in the second half. The Pirates hit five of their first seven shots over the opening 4:40 of the second half.
- W&M turned it on defensively to spark at 14-1 run. During the near seven-minute stretch, the Green and Gold held HU to eight-straight missed shots. On the other end, it was Van Vliet and Scott leading the way as the duo combined for 12 of the Tribe's 14 points. Scott knocked down a pair 3-pointers, and Van Vliet's bucket extended the Tribe lead to 61-47 with 8:40 remaining.
- The Pirates could get no closer than 10 points the rest of the way, cutting the deficit to 61-51 on a pair of Marrow free throws with 7:52 remaining.
- Van Vliet answered with a 3-pointer from the left baseline and scored eight of the Tribe's next nine points to stretch the lead to 70-55 with 3:23 left.
- The lead ballooned to its largest at 75-57 after a Knight free throw with 1:34 remaining.
 
Starting
W&M – #1 Scott, #5 Barnes, #11 Van Vliet, #12 Loewe, #13 Knight
Hampton - #2 Marrow, #3 Warren, #4 Heckstall, #13 Oliver-Hampton, #14 Stanley
 
Inside the Numbers
- For the second-straight game, the Tribe shot better than 50% from the floor, finishing at 54.5% (30-of-55).
- Defensively, the Tribe held Hampton to 37.7% (26-fo-69) from the field.
- W&M controlled the glass, outrebounding HU, 42-31. After Hampton posted nine offensive rebounds in the first half, the Tribe limited them to just three in the second 20 minutes.
- The Green and Gold outscored Hampton, 27-9, from 3-point range. They hit 9-of-19 (47.4%) compared to 3-of-13 (23.1%) for the Pirates.
 
Notes
The Tribe improved to 4-0 for the first time since 1992-93 and just the 10th time in the 115-year history of the program … It marks just the second time in the last 60 years that W&M is 4-0 to start a season … Head coach Dane Fischer is just the third coach in program history to start his career 4-0 and the first since Rube McCray in 1943-44 … The Green and Gold won its eighth-straight home-opener, improving to 39-11 in home openers since Kaplan Arena opened in 1970 … The Tribe won its third straight against Hampton and sixth in a row in Williamsburg against the Pirates … W&M leads the all-time series with HU at 14-8… Graduate student Bryce Barnes recorded his first career 20-point game, finishing with a career-high 21… His previous career-high was 19 vs. UW La Crosse in 2017 … Senior Nathan Knight picked up his fifth-straight double-double and fourth on the year, finishing with 15 points and 13 rebounds … Van Vliet tallied his second double-double in the last three games … He set career highs with 22 points and 12 rebounds … It marks the third time this season that he pulled down 10 or more rebounds … Sophomore Thornton Scott scored in double figures for the third time in four games, finishing with 12 points on 4-of-6 from 3-point range.
 
Up Next
- The Tribe travels west for a pair of games against Power 5 competition next week as part of the 2019 National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame Classic Powered by ShotTracker.
- W&M heads to Oklahoma on Monday, Nov. 18, for a 7 p.m. ET tip, before traveling to Stanford on Thursday, Nov. 21, at 10 p.m. ET.
- The game with Oklahoma will be televised on Fox Sports Oklahoma. It will be available in the Mid-Atlantic region on MASN2. Check the MASN channel finder or your local listing for more information. On Cox Communications in Hampton Roads, the game will be available on channel 135. The game is available on Direct TV channel 640-1 and on Dish channel 433.
- Tribe fans can catch the men's basketball action over the Tribe Radio Network with Jay Colley 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 is also available over the Web at TribeAthletics.com.