The Panthers travel to William and Mary on February 25th to face the Tribe at 2PM.  PantherTalk gives you an inside look at the matchup.

William and Mary Tribe 6-24 (4-13) CAA
Head Coach–Tony Shaver 103-170–9th year at W&M

The Panthers missed an opportunity to win its 20th game of the season in a heart-breaking overtime loss to Old Dominion on Senior Night in the Sports Arena last Wednesday.  GSU will have one more chance in the regular season to earn the coveted 20th victory against a team it hammered 2 1/2 months ago by 32 points.

It has been a season to forget for the Tribe, who opened the season with five straight losses and dropped nine consecutive conference games later in the season.  W&M have played better down the stretch though, going 2-2 in their last four games which includes a 2 point road loss to first place Drexel.

The Tribe is led by Quinn McDowell, one of the few seniors on the team and leading scorer at 12.8 ppg.  But, the bright spot this season has been freshman standout Marcus Thornton who has shown flashes of brilliance throughout the 2011-12 campaign.  The freshman from Upper Marlboro, MD is averaging 11.2 ppg and has been particularly good on the biggest stages.  Thornton scored 50 points in two narrow losses to VCU and he dropped 23 points at George Mason.

Keys to the Game:

Crash the boards

The Panthers were dominated on the glass in the 65-60 overtime loss to Old Dominion.  The Monarchs shot just 30.3% from the field in the game, but they seemed to have second chances on every possession.  The stat sheet had to be tough to look at for Coach Ron Hunter and his staff with ODU topping GSU in rebounding 50-35, including an astounding 23 offensive boards.  Eric Buckner and Josh Micheaux will need to make sure they limit W&M’s second chance opportunities and keep the Tribe to one-and-done on offense.

Match defensive intensity

The Panthers held William and Mary to just 34 points in their first meeting and almost matched the school record of 33 points allowed in a 2009-10 win over Howard.  GSU’s defense smothered the Tribe and limited them to shooting 25.5% (12-47) from the field with 17 turnovers.  W&M is 313th in the nation in scoring (60.7 ppg), so if the Panthers can come close to that defensive effort, they should walk out of Williamsburg, VA with a win.

Be smart with the ball

GSU had 15 turnovers in the loss to ODU, and several of them were due to plain carelessness with the basketball.  Lazy passes across the top of the key by Rashaad Richardson and Brandon McGee were turned into breakaway lay-ups for the Monarchs and errant drives by Josh Micheaux left the Panthers with nothing to show for on several possessions.  William and Mary struggles scoring the ball so the offense needs to be sure to avoid giving away easy buckets on careless turnovers.

Get healthy

Eric Buckner played and Ron Hunter coached with the flu on Wednesday and both were certainly less than 100%.  Buckner still managed 7 points, 10 rebounds, and 6 blocks in the loss but he needed several trips to the locker room throughout the game.  With this being the final regular season game, the Panthers will be able to rest for a week before traveling to Richmond, VA for the CAA tournament.

W&M Probable Starters:

G- 6’1 182 Brandon Britt-9.3 points, 1.5 assists
G- 6’4 205 Matt Rum-6.2 points, 3.5 rebounds
G- 6’6 215 Quin McDowell-12.8 points, 4.7 rebounds
G- 6’3 195 Kendrix Brown-3.8 points, 4.2 rebounds
F- 6’9 230 Tim Rusthoven-10.3 points, 6.5 rebounds