LEXINGTON, VA (January 24, 2008)-Zac White scored 19 points and Ben Heller tallied 16 points and seven rebounds to lead Washington and Lee (12-4, 5-2 ODAC) to a 73-60 victory over Hampden-Sydney on Saturday night.
The win marked the second straight loss for the Tigers in Lexington, and dropped Hampden-Sydney to 9-9 overall and 4-5 in the Old Dominion Athletic Conference.
A Chris McHugh three-pointer gave Washington and Lee its first lead at 12-11 with 13:58 to play in the first half and from that point the Generals never looked back. Timely defensive pressure and torrid shooting from beyond-the-arc spurred the Generals' effort, giving them plenty of momentum heading into their Wednesday night date with conference leader, Randolph-Macon.
Perhaps the most shocking development of the evening was the outing had by Hampden-Sydney junior guard Turner King (Roanoke, VA/Roanoke Catholic), who was held scoreless in 25 minutes of play. The ODAC's leading scorer attempted just two shots on the night and came one foul away from fouling out of the contest.
Limited by two early fouls, King was unable to relentlessly attack the glass, and finished with just two rebounds, well under his team-leading 5.4 rebounds-per-game average.
Four Tigers scored in double figures, but those same four players accounted for a striking majority of Hampden-Sydney's points.
Ben Jessee (Midlothian, VA/Cosby) and Jonathan Mudd (Miami, FL/American) scored 16 points each to lead the Tigers while Lane Medlin (West Point, VA/Fork Union) and Shane Payne (Weston, FL/Sagemont) added 15 and 10 points, respectively, but the seven other Hampden-Sydney players who logged minutes mustered just three total points among them.
The Tigers out-rebounded Washington and Lee 27-22, but after a first half that resulted in Hampden-Sydney trailing Washington and Lee, 31-25, the story was the Generals' deadly accuracy from long range. For the game, Washington and Lee shot 50 percent from distance with White knocking down 3-of-4, McHugh 3-of-7 and reserve point guard Jason Cimino 2-of-4.
The Generals were 5-for-9 from beyond-the-arc in the decisive second half, and used back-to-back triples from McHugh and White to turn a 37-29 advantage into a comfortable, 43-31 lead with 15:25 to play in the game.
With King able to get off just one shot in the second frame, the Tigers attempted to rally behind the efforts of Jessee and Mudd, who registered 11 and 10 points, respectively, in the period.
But the Generals answered at will on the other end of the floor with blistering 57.1 percent shooting in the final 20 minutes, as White poured in 17 of his 19 during that span.
Payne snared a game-high nine rebounds for Hampden-Sydney, which was unable to shake off 17 turnovers during its second loss in three games. Mudd pulled down seven boards and King dished a team-high three assists.
McHugh finished with 11 points and teammate Kirk Jones contributed nine points and three assists for Washington and Lee.
The Tigers will continue their three-game road trip when they travel to Randolph College on Wednesday, January 28 for a 7:00 pm tip-off.
