By Dave Johnson
W&M Athletics
 
William & Mary didn't get the win it hoped for in Saturday's Colonial Athletic Association opener. But the Tribe did push the conference's defending champion and preseason favorite to the final seconds on the road.
 
Trailing by double digits a good hunk of the way, W&M made a late run before falling to Hofstra 61-56 on Long Island. It was the Tribe's third consecutive loss, but this one showed some promise.
 
"I was really proud of the effort," W&M coach Dane Fischer said. "We had really good attention to what we needed to do on the defensive end especially. We did a great job of guarding their keys guys in particular.
 
"Across the board, on an afternoon when we really struggled offensively, we gave ourselves a chance. We did that with some great effort and sticking together."
 
Luke Loewe scored nearly half of W&M's total with 27 points, 15 coming in the second half. He was 10-of-19 from the field, 4-of-9 from deep, and had five rebounds and four assists. All while holding Hofstra's Jalen Ray, who had scored 80 points in his previous three games, to seven on 2-of-11 shooting.
 
"A tremendous performance on both ends of the floor," Fischer said.
 
Quinn Blair had a solid game with 13 points and nine rebounds — nine and six, respectively, in the second half. Mehkel Harvey had a Dennis Rodman stat line with one point, four blocked shots and a career-high 16 rebounds.
 
The Tribe (2-4, 0-1 CAA) shot 32 percent from the field to break a run of back-to-back games in the 20s. W&M hurt itself with 14 turnovers, which the Pride converted into 13 points, but was even on the boards at 45-all.
 
W&M also had 16 assists, its most since the season opener against Old Dominion.
 
William & Mary was able to get only 17 minutes from freshman Yuri Covington, its starting point guard and second-leading scorer. Of his five fouls, four were on the offensive end. He finished with three points on 1-of-5 shooting.
 
The Tribe trailed 55-44 with 4:21 remaining but chipped away. Miguel Ayesa's 3-pointer with 55 seconds cut the Pride's lead to 57-54. Hofstra's Caleb Burgess missed on the other end, but Isaac Kante got one of his 14 rebounds and was fouled with 30 seconds left.
 
Kante went 1-for-2 from the line, and Loewe turned the ball over on the other end. Tareq Coburn then split two free throws to make it 59-54 with 15 seconds left.
 
Loewe's drive made it a three-point game with eight seconds left, but that was as close as the Tribe would get.
 
"They stuck together and played the whole 40," Fischer said. "If we do that over the course of this season, that will start leading to some positive results for us."
 
NOTES: Under the CAA's scheduling format this season, which is designed to minimize travel and exposure to COVID-19, the Tribe will play at Hofstra (5-3, 1-0) again Sunday at 2 p.m. … W&M played Saturday without injured redshirt freshman Ben Wight, who along with Harvey is the tallest player on the roster at 6-foot-9. Fischer said there's a chance Wight could play Sunday.