Behind a strong opening half, the William & Mary Tribe maintained its lead and defeated the Howard Bison, 78-69, on Thursday night.

Calvin Thompson paced the Bison with 24 points on 11-of-26 shooting from the floor, while forward Mike Phillips added 20 points on 9-of-16 shooting. Howard only got four total points off its bench, and shot 40.3 percent as a team from the field.

The Tribe used a balanced scoring attack to keep their advantage, and were led by 26 points (6-of-10 shooting from the field) from Brandon Britt. Three other starters -- Tim Rusthoven, Marcus Thornton and Kyle Gaillard -- all scored in double figures as well for William & Mary.

Despite a relatively even second half, Howard couldn't get out of the hole they dug from themselves early, as they went into the halftime break down eight, 38-30. A near three-minute scoring drought late in the half hurt the Bison, as they went from trailing, 26-24, with just under six minutes remaining to down 33-24 with 3:30 left. In that stretch, Howard shot 0-for-4 from the field.