The Tribe Has Spoken

The Tribe pulled off what is probably the best win in the Tony Shaver era, beating 4th-place Drexel soundly at home. In a 60-47 win that was dominated by defense, the Tribe held Drexel to 33% from the field and 1-11 from 3. Defense has been key in the Tribe’s 15 wins this season, and the trend continued tonight.

The fifth-place Tribe got a pleasant suprise tonight, with a very nice game out of the injured Laimis Kisielius. Kisielius was the team’s leading scorer with 17 points and 8 rebounds, shooting 6-10 from the field and 4-4 from the foul stripe. He had a combined 6 points in his last 2 games and really came back strong.

While Adam Payton had an off shooting night, going 3-12 from the field, he made up for it by going 7-8 from the foul stripe and scoring 13 points. He also had 4 assists and 3 rebounds.

Nathan Mann was also in double figures, going 3-5 from 3-point range and scoring a total of 12 points. He also had 4 rebounds and had several big 3’s.

While the Tribe won, Drexel’s big men were dominant in the post. Frank Elegar scored a game-high 18, and another game-high 9 rebounds. Chaz Crawford, too, had 9 rebounds, and scored 10 points in the paint. He also had 2 blocks, and altered all kinds of shots down low.

The Tribe kept a steady lead through the game, the peak coming with a 15-point lead with 14 minutes left in the game. The Dragons slowly came back, getting it to a 4-point game with about 2 minutes left. Then the Tribe pulled away, and late fouls gave the Tribe a nice cushion, and a 13-point win.

The Tribe travels to Connecticut this Saturday to face Fairfield in the bracketbuster, and then follow it up on Wednesday at Drexel.