SALEM, Va. – The Washington and Lee men's basketball team fell by a final score of 81-56 in the ODAC championship game on Sunday to top-ranked and second-seeded Hampden-Sydney.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
Both sides traded a layup and a three-point each across the opening two minutes of play, but the Tigers (26-2) then used a 19-1 run over the next seven minutes to build up a 24-6 lead with 11:39 remaining. Senior
Jack d'Entremont helped the Generals (18-10) respond as he hit a layup, followed by a turnaround jumper from senior
Drew Harrell, to send the Generals on a 9-2 run to get it back to an 11-point game.
The Generals made four of their final nine shots of the half, while the Tigers went 7-of-12 over the final six and a half minutes, as HSC went back up by 18 points at the break.
W&L held the Tigers off the board for more than four minutes to begin the second half and got two points each from d'Entremont and first-year
Conor Roberton to get back within 14 points. After a Davidson Hubbard layup fell, the Tigers used an 18-9 run over the next seven minutes to grab their largest lead of the game to that point, 61-38. W&L answered with a 10-3 run and got three points apiece from senior
Robert DiSibio and sophomore
John Loughlin.
From the 6:37 point until the final buzzer, Hampden-Sydney held the Blue and White to 3-of-10 shooting and ended the day on a 17-8 run to yield the final total.
TOP PERFORMERS:
Harrell finished as the Generals' leading scorer with 15 points on 6-of-12 shooting from the field, followed by DiSibio and d'Entremont with 11 each. d'Entremont was W&L's high rebounder with nine boards, and DiSibio tallied six rebounds and a team-high four assists. Loughlin made a trio of triples on five attempts to notch nine points.
HSC's Adam Brazil led all scorers with 27 points, while Hubbard turned in an 18-point, nine-rebound performance. Josiah Hardy also got into double figures for the Tigers' offense with 15 points on 6-of-8 shooting.
NOTEWORTHY POINTS:
Following the game, Harrell and DiSibio were named to the 2024 All-ODAC Tournament Team, along with HSC's Brazil, Hubbard and Hardy.
DiSibio made one triple on the day to break a tie with Andy Kleinlein '17 (189) for the second-most made three-point field goals in program history. DiSibio also became just the fifth player in program history to cross the 1,700-point threshold. Sunday marked DiSibio's 100th career game, and he has scored 1,708 points.
TEAM STATS:
The Generals shot 36.4 percent (20-55) in the game and shot even higher in the second half at 38.7 percent (12-31). The Blue and White also limited HSC to 39.4 percent (13-33) in the second half, and 30.8 percent (4-13) from deep over the final 20 minutes.
The Tigers ended the day with positive margins in rebounds (47-33), points off turnovers (18-6), second-chance points (16-4) and points in the paint (30-20).
UP NEXT:
The Generals will now look to gain an at-large bid into the 2024 NCAA Division III Championship. The Division III men's basketball selection show is schedule for Monday, February 26, at 1:00 p.m. at ncaa.com.
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.
