Senior guard Jacob Williams took the inbounds pass and steamed to the basket to beat the clock and give the University of Mary Washington men's basketball team to a 75-73 victory over Southern Virginia University on Wednesday night in Capital Athletic Conference action at Ron Rosner Arena. The Eagles win their sixth straight game, and improve to 6-1 in CAC play.
The Knights came out on fire from behind the three point arc, and jumped out to an 8-1 lead. After the teams traded three pointers, junior A.J. Robinson connected for another three to trim the deficit to 11-7 with 13:36 left in the half. UMW trimmed the deficit to two, at 11-9, on a pair of Greg Rowson free throws, but another Knights three returned the lead to five. A layup from junior Mark Madison precluded another Knights three, and a Riley Welch layup cut the deficit to 17-15 with 9:12 left.
Southern Virginia again answered with a pair of three pointers to build a 23-15 cushion with 7:54 remaining. After a pair of Da'Shawn free throws, the Knights scored a pair of threes sandwiching a triple from Welch, and the Kights led, 29-20. A three point play from senior Johnny Cronin cut the margin to 29-23, but three Kight free throws returned the margin to nine at 4:58. A Cronin basket came before the teams traded three pointers to move the score to 35-28 with 2:56 to go. A Rowson three pointer cut the margin to four, and a Ra'Shawn Cook three pointer cut the margin to 37-34, and the teams traded threes again to move the halftime score to 40-37.
The Eagles cut the deficit to 42-40 on a Rowson three, and after the teams again traded baskets, back to back threes from the visitors moved their lead to 50-42 with 16:22 left. Da'Shawn Cook hit a three to trim the margin to 52-48 with 14:49 remaining, and added a bucket with 14:35 left to draw the Eagles to within two at 52-50. After a SVU three pointer, Da'Shawn Cook hit three free throws, and added another three with 12:48 left to cut the deficit to one, at 57-56.
Rowson scored a layup with 12:18 left to give UMW its first lead of the night at 58-57, but the Knights wouldn't go away, regaining the lead at 61-60 with 8:31 to go. After a Cronin basket, the Knights used a three pointer and a layup to grab a four-point lead at 66-62 with 7:40 left. Another three from the visitors returned the lead to five, but a Rowson three and layup kept the Eagles within two over the next stretch.
Welch connected on a pair of free throws with 4:21 left to tie the score, and the Eagles regained the lead at 73-71 with 1:16 left on a Cook layup. Southern Virginia knotted the score at 73 with 1:01 to go, and had a late opportunity, but were whistled for an offensive foul with 5.4 seconds left. Williams then took the inbounds pass in the back court and dribbled hard to the basket, and scored his lone basket of the game with 0.4 seconds left. Cronin swatted away the last effort at midcourt, giving UMW the hard-fought win.
Rowson led the Eagles with 21 points and eight rebounds, while Cook scored 18 with eight rebounds. Cronin scored 10 points and added nine rebounds, seven assists and four steals, while Welch added 10 as well.
UMW shot 33.8% from the floor (25-74), making 12-41 three pointers, and 13-22 free throws. Southern Virginia shot 48.1% (25-52), making 16-33 three pointers and 7-11 free throws.UMW held a 45-40 rebounding advantage.
The Eagles will return to action on Saturday when they host Frostburg State University at 3 p.m.