Tight Match Against Spartanburg Methodist, 67-64

SOUTH PRINCE GEORGE, VA -- The Richard Bland College of William and Mary men's basketball team fell to a talented Spartanburg Methodist Pioneers team by a score of 67-64 on Tuesday night.

The loss brings the Statesmen to 6-16 on the season while the Pioneers improve to 15-8. The Statesmen will host USC Salkehatchie Saturday, February 16 at 2 pm in Statesman Hall.

Tuesday night brought a lot of ups and downs for the Statesmen. After the first eight minutes of the game, the Statesmen found themselves in a 14 point hole as the Pioneers led 20-6. Richard Bland who has been relentless at home continued to fight and slowly worked their way back into the game by capitalizing off of the Pioneers turnovers and stops on defense. By halftime, the Statesmen only trailed 33-30. The Statesmen continued their high energy play at the start of the second half. After trading early baskets with the Pioneers, the Statesmen found themselves in the lead, with the assistance of a three from Wayne Clevert, by a score of 40-37 and 17:00 remaining. Six minutes later after a big putback by Sterling Carrington, the Statesmen were in the lead 54-46. The Pioneers would answer on the other end with a big three to cut the lead to 54-49.

Southern Methodist, who is shooting almost 50% from three in conference play, would continue to knock down big shots from behind the arc. The Statesmen who have struggled behind the arc as of late continued to execute offensively. Unfortunately, the trading of 2's against the Pioneer's 3's led to the Statesmen losing the lead 63-60 with 4:38 remaining. As the game progressed both teams continued to battle for every point they put on the board. With three seconds remaining, the Pioneers had a chance to put the game away at the free throw line. After missing both free throws Sterling Carrington would put up a desperation three that would fall short in an attempt to push the game to overtime. The Statesmen were led in scoring by Ryan Jones with 17 points followed by Sterling Carrington with 14 and Jordan Cross with 13.