By Dave Johnson
W&M Athletics
 
The two regular-season games between these teams were nothing alike. So it makes complete sense that round three in the CAA tournament's opening round would go to overtime.
 
Once it did, Northeastern quickly took command and came away with a 68-63 win over William & Mary Saturday in Washington, D.C. The Tribe dominated the offensive boards, took care of the ball, and made its free throws.
 
But facing elimination in the Entertainment and Sports Arena, it wasn't enough.
 
Tyler Rice lived up to his CAA All-Rookie team selection with 15 points, four assists and no turnovers in 33 minutes. Brandon Carroll had 12 rebounds and a double-double in the final game of his career, and Ben Wight had 14 points in 25 foul-shortened minutes.
 
"I was really proud of how the group played," W&M coach Dane Fischer said. "Tyler Rice was terrific today and really controlled the game for us as best he could. We're disappointed we couldn't get it done, but I'm proud of the effort they gave."
 
W&M (5-27) led for most of the second half, but Northeastern tied on Nikola Djogo's straight-on 3-pointer with 39 seconds remaining. Each team had a chance to win in regulation but neither capitalized.
 
The Huskies started the overtime with a follow by Jahmyl Telfort. After a miss on W&M's end, Shaquille Walters hit a 3-pointer to make it 61-56 with 3:51 left.
 
The Tribe missed its first seven shots in OT before Rice hit a 3-pointer to cut Northeastern's lead to 65-59. W&M wasn't able to make it a one-possession game.
 
Northeastern coach Bill Coen, who became the all-time leader in CAA tournament wins, praised Fischer and his players.
 
"It's always a difficult game when we prepare for them," he said. "You know when you're going against his program that they'll play hard, they'll play smart, and they'll play together."
 
The halftime score was 18-17, surely one of the lowest in CAA tournament history. W&M shot 22.7% from the floor; Northeastern was even worse at 21.4%. Eighteen fouls were called, and the Tribe had more free throws (six) than field goals (five).
 
"I'm not sure if there's ever been a tractor pull in this arena," Fischer said, "but after that first half, I think I can say there was."
 
The Tribe shot 48% in the second half and had eight assists with only two turnovers.
 
"Coach compared it to two genres of music, heavy metal and symphony," Rice said. "Heavy metal is kind of frantic and a lot of noise, and that's how we were playing in the first half. No calm, no pace, just attacking with our heads down.
 
"In the second half, we found the symphony. We slowed things down and got good shots."
 
The problem was, so did Northeastern. Especially 6-foot-7, 240-pound forward Chris Doherty, who scored 24 of his 26 points after halftime. He went 10-of-10 from the field, the best shooting night in a CAA tournament game since Navy's David Robinson hit 12-of-12 against East Carolina in 1985.
 
"He was able to catch the ball in spots where he could get angles," Fischer said. "He drove it at times and posted it at times. Almost every basket he made was a layup, or it seemed like it. We went to double him late, but he had done a ton of damage to that point."
 
Rice played nothing like a freshman in his first postseason game. He said he was more excited than nervous, mostly because he had trust in his teammates.
 
"I felt like we had a really good week of preparation coming into today's game, and I was very confident in the game plan," he said. "We have a quiz before every game, and every player pretty much said the scout word for word.
 
"That let me know I could rely on my brothers to go out and execute today. We did that for most of the game."
 
Of W&M's nine players who saw court time Saturday, six were either freshmen or sophomores. The Tribe is the youngest team in the CAA and, according to KenPom.com, the 14th-youngest of 358 Division I programs.
 
Rice sees better times ahead.
 
"I know the season didn't go the way we wanted it to in terms of wins and losses, but we're a young team," he said. "We came into practice every single day ready to get better. We got closer as a team. We got more disciplined. And I think those things are signs of a team that will be good in the future.
 
"It's a process. We're young, and we have to learn. This year can be really good for us if we choose to learn from it."