G:TB Hearts Salvador Dali

You may be tempted to dismiss the images you're about to see as hideously out of focus, poorly balanced, and lacking compositional quality. Beauty, my friends, is in the eye of the beholder. For example, many viewers of last night's William & Mary/George Mason contest beheld a grinding, uneven, at times sloppy ballgame. G:TB, on the other hand, saw a spirited back and forth between two squads who approach the game from decidedly divergent perspectives.

(And if none of that contrived prose works for you, just pretend you're viewing the scene through Teejay's Coors Light and Vodka/Red Bull-fueled prism. I think the photos will make a great deal of sense in that context.)



Two for the price of one in this photo, which captures not only Mason's bandleader, but AD and former NCAA Basketball Selection Committee Chairman Tom O'Connor (he's the white-haired gentleman about to get punched by the righteous fist of blurry justice at left).



This is probably our best photo. I was definitely trying to capture the spirit of the Mason students. That's totally my story.



Arrrrrrrrrgh. Run away! Snow angels!



Our seats were pretty decent, eh? Many thanks to our newfound Mason-backer friends for the generous accomodations. Not sure if you can make it out in the photo, but that's one of them walking off the court at halftime.

As for the game itself, it was clear from the jump that Mason had significantly more athletic talent than did the Tribe, and when the Patriots sped out to a 10-3 lead, things seemed bleak. As was the case throughout the game, though, W&M never panicked against a superior opponent. David Schneider (a game high 19 points) calmly drilled a funky rotationless triple to stem the Mason run, and the Tribe dug in once again.

The rest of the game followed a similar pattern: Mason would spurt to a lead and seem to lose focus on both ends of the court. Will Thomas was pretty much unstoppable, but the Patriots would forget about him for long stretches - he only wound up with 10 points. Meanwhile, with a few exceptions, W&M took care of the basketball, played physical defense, and invariably made a couple of shots to keep things interesting. On the night, W&M turned the ball over 13 times while forcing 17 miscues, and was only outrebounded 30-28. The Tribe even opened up a 27-23 lead just before halftime, enough of an edge to wake Mason from one of its slumbers and post a quick 5-0 run heading into the break.

With a bit more than 6 minutes left, Nathan Mann hit a three from the corner to give W&M a 50-49 lead and send more than a little bit of worry through the home crowd. There may have been a man hug between me and Teejay then. Not exactly sure. He was pretty drunk (Rob drank water the whole night. And ate a salad at a sports bar).

On cue, though, Mason scored the next 8 points, holding the Tribe scoreless for almost 5 minutes. John (the Dentist) Vaughn hit a dagger trey to make the count 55-50 and when Folarin Campbell followed with a beautiful driving two-handed jam, the script was essentially written. Mason's talent overcame W&M's determination and discipline, but only just.

Couple more makes, handful of bounces here and there, and the Tribe pulls a big upset on Senior Night in Fairfax. Tony Shaver's boys acquitted themselves well, and made these aging alums fairly proud. If nothing else, the team's collective effort and poise gives us a lot of reason for hope. And that, lady and gentlemen, is a rare and precious commodity 'round Williamsburg way, at least during hoops season.