ROCK HILL, S.C. – Playing its third game in three days, William & Mary erupted for 102 points, placed six players in double figures and knocked down 16 3-pointers in a 15-point victory over Georgia Southern, 102-87, on Sunday afternoon in the Rock Hill Classic.
 
Senior Noah Collier led the balance Tribe attack with 19 points on a perfect 7-of-7 from the field. He also added seven rebounds, and a career-high three assists. Senior Gabe Dorsey finished 17 points on five 3-pointers, while junior Kyle Pulliam scored 15 off the bench.
 
After dropping the first two games of the event by a combined three points, the Tribe (3-3) responded on the final day in a big way. Leading by six with seven minutes remaining, W&M ripped off a 14-2 run to put the game out of reach.
 
Highlighting the balance, five different Tribe players scored during the decisive run. W&M scored the final 10 in a row with 3-pointers from graduate student Keller Boothby and freshman Isaiah Mbeng book-ending the stretch. The final triple from the Tribe rookie pushed the lead to 98-80 with just 3:33 left.
 
Junior Chase Lowe tallied his seventh career double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds to go along with four assists. Graduate student Malachi Ndur scored 12 points on 3-of-5 from 3-point range, while Mbeng chipped in 11 off the bench on a trio of 3-pointers.
 
Sunday's matinee started in back and forth fashion with neither team leading by more than four through the opening half of the first 20 minutes.
 
With the game tied at 18, W&M used a 14-3 run sparked by Pulliam to open up a double-digit lead. Mbeng started the spurt with a left wing 3-pointers, but Pulliam punctuated it with eight-straight. The junior guard knocked down back-to-back 3-pointers, before a driving lay-up at the 8:36 mark extended the Tribe lead to 32-21.
 
Georgia Southern (4-2) pulled within six, 35-29, on back-to-back buckets from Dontae Horne and Adante' Holiman, before W&M used a quick 9-0 run to open up its largest lead of the half. Boothby and Mbeng capped the run with back-to-back 3-pointers, giving W&M a 44-29 lead with 4:31 left in the frame.
 
The Eagles held W&M without a field goal over the remainder of the half and hit five of its final seven shots from the floor as part of a 16-4 run to pull within three at the break. Nakavieon White scored six during the spurt for GSU, while Bradley Douglas's lay-up with 13 seconds left in the half closed the gap to 48-45.
 
W&M started the second half strong, scoring nine points in the frame's opening 42 seconds. Collier converted a 3-point play on the Tribe's opening possession, before Ndur and Dorsey hit back-to-back triples to give W&M a 57-45 lead.  
 
Georgia Southern used a 13-4 run to draw within four. Nate Brafford and Eren Banks hit 3-pointers on consecutive Eagle possessions to start the run. Brafford scored in the paint and was fouled with 10:07 left to close the gap to 76-72. He missed the free throw, and Dorsey responded for the Tribe with a 3-pointer to push the margin back to seven.
 
The Tribe shot 54.3% (19-of-35) in second half and finished the game at 49.3% (33-of-67) overall. W&M hit 10 3-pointers in the first half on the way to 16-of-44 (36.4%) for the game. The Green and Gold hit at a 76.9% clip (20-of-26) at the free throw line and totaled 18 assists compared to just 11 turnovers.
 
White led all scorers with 25 points on 8-of-16 shooting, while Brafford and Holiman finished with 11 and 10 points, respectively. The Eagles shot 47% (31-of-66) from the field, 10-of-33 (30.3%) from 3-point range, and 15-of-24 (62.5%) at the free throw line.
 
Up Next
The Tribe continues on the road with two games on the Tar Heel State next week. W&M heads to defending ACC Champion NC State on Friday, Nov. 22, at 7 p.m., before traveling to Sun Belt regular season champion App State on Sunday, Nov. 24, at 1 p.m. The contest with the Wolfpack will be streamed for ACC Network Extra, while the game at the Mountaineers will be available on ESPN+.