LEXINGTON, Va. – Led by the superb play from senior
Robert DiSibio down the stretch, the Washington and Lee men's basketball team overcame a second-half deficit to topple Virginia Wesleyan, 77-68, on Saturday afternoon.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
Much of the second half was a back-and-forth between the Marlins (15-5, 6-5 ODAC) and the Generals (12-7, 6-4 ODAC), with the visitors remaining out in front, 61-55, with just under nine minutes left in regulation. DiSibio then dished to senior
Jack d'Entremont, who nailed a three-pointer to kickstart an 18-5 run to silence the Marlins and get the Holekamp Gym crowd going.
At one point during the 18-5 run, W&L scored 10 straight points to flip a four-point deficit into a six-point lead. DiSibio poured in 10 points during the 18-5 stretch, as the Generals connected on 6-of-9 from the field and 3-of-5 from deep.
Neither side made a field goal after DiSibio's driving layup with 1:37 left, but it was the Generals who held VWU without a field goal over the final three minutes of play. The Marlins' lone two points in that time came from Khai Seargeant at the free throw line, while senior
Drew Harrell made four foul shots in the final 70 seconds to ice the game.
The Generals ran out to a 10-3 lead in the first half, making each of their first four shots. Virginia Wesleyan settled in after that, however, with an 18-8 run, led by eight points from Elijah Gardner to take a 21-18 lead eight minutes in. The Marlins managed to extend that lead to six over the next 7:15, but W&L responded with seven straight points on the front end of an 11-4 run to end the half to take a 42-41 lead into halftime.
TOP PERFORMERS:
DiSibio finished the day with a game-high 29 points, and he shot 8-of-18 from the floor, 3-of-7 from long range and 10-of-12 at the line. He also added eight rebounds, two blocks and six assists, just one away from tying his career high. Harrell followed with a career-high 21 points on 5-of-9 shooting overall (9-11 FT), with six rebounds, four assists and two steals, while d'Entremont chipped in 13 points, eight boards and four steals.
Seargeant scored a Marlins'-high 16 points and grabbed six rebounds, while Jordan Crump tallied 14 points and seven rebounds, with a 4-for-7 shooting performance from outside. Amari Moorer notched 11 points, and the team got 10 points each from Eric Rowland and Gardner.
NOTEWORTHY POINTS:
DiSibio's 29 points helped him reach a pair of elite program scoring milestones. At 10:35 of the first half, DiSibio's first of two made free throws gave him an even 1,500 career points, making him just the 11th player in program history to reach that mark. His game total of 29 vaulted him past Cam Dyer '96 (1,507) for 10th place on the program's all-time scoring list, and he can move into ninth with five more points.
Additionally, with three triples on the day, DiSibio broke a tie with Chris Halkitis '07 (167) and also moved past William Brueggeman '21 (168) for the third-most made three-point shots in program history (170).
d'Entremont closed the gap between himself and 1,000 career points scored to just nine with his 13 points.
TEAM STATS:
The Generals shot 42.6 percent (23-54) from the field, and they made at least 40 percent of their shots in both halves. The Marlins held the slight edge for the game with 42.9 percent (24-56), but they made just 32.1 percent (9-28) of their shots in the second game and 14.3 percent (1-7) from beyond the arc after making 53.3 percent (8-15) in the first half.
W&L held a sizeable margin at the free throw line, as the Blue and White made 24-of-31 foul shots, compared to 11-of-20 from Virginia Wesleyan. The Generals also outscored the Marlins, 16-10, off turnovers and 12-5 on fastbreaks, while the visitors held the positive totals in bench points (25-8), second-chance points (10-5) and points in the paint (24-22).
UP NEXT:
The Generals will play on the road in their next contest, a 7:00 p.m. start against Shenandoah on Wednesday night.
Nestled in the mountains of Virginia, Washington and Lee University is a proud member of NCAA Division III and the Old Dominion Athletic Conference. Founded in 1749, W&L is the ninth-oldest college in the United States and a top-ranked liberal arts university. With over 500 student-athletes in 24 varsity sports, the Generals have celebrated over 265 conference championships. Learn more about the Blue and White by visiting www.generalssports.com or on social media at @WLUGenerals.
