Sophomore guard Walt Smith (Alexandria, Va., T.C. Williams) scored 16 points and added nine assists and four steals to pace the University of Mary Washington men's basketball team to a 75-67 win over Roanoke College on Sunday at the William M. Anderson Center. Senior Tad Dickman (Springfield, Va., Robert E. Lee) and sophomore E.J. Willis (Alexandria, Va., T.C. Williams) each scored 15 for UMW, who improves to 8-2 on the year.

The Eagles trailed in the early going, but reeled off nine straight points to lead, 13-8, with 15:37 left in the first half. The lead shrunk to as few as two and as many as eight before another run of 9-2 pushed the Eagle lead to 31-18 with 3:35 remaining. Willis scored twice in that spurt. Roanoke scored the final two buckets of the half to cut the deficit to 35-26 at intermission.

Roanoke came out firing in the second half, shooting 49% after making just 31% in the opening stanza, and cutting the nine-point deficit to two in the opening minutes. UMW responded with a 9-2 run to push the lead back to nine at 44-35 with 15:47 to play.

The Maroons cut the deficit to one twice in the final 3:06, but the Eagles were able to make five of their final six free throws for the eight-point win. In all, UMW shot 40% (27-67) from the floor and went 16-28 from the free throw line (57%). Roanoke made 26-64 shots in the game (40.6%), but were plagued by 29 turnovers.

Freshman Taylor Johnson (Ashburn, Va., Broad Run) had eight points and four steals, and senior guard Ryan Farrar (Ashburn, Va., Centreville, Va.) added seven points and six rebounds.

The Eagles will return to action on December 29 when they face Alvernia College in Daytona Beach, Fla. at 8:00 p.m.