WASHINGTON — For the first time since 1993, William & Mary women’s basketball is headed to the CAA Championship game.
The Tribe used some hot shooting and a pair of decisive runs in the second and third quarters to roll past No. 4 seed Drexel, 76-54, on Saturday afternoon at CareFirst Arena. With the victory, W&M became the lowest seed ever to advance the CAA Championship game.
The guard duo of senior Bella Nascimento and sophomore Monet Dance led the way for the Tribe. Nascimento led all scorers with 20 points and turned in an impressive all-around stat line with four rebounds, four assists, three steals, and two blocked shots.
Fresh off a career-high 27 in the quarterfinal win over NC A&T, Dance followed it up with a near perfect day. She tallied 18 points, the second-highest total of her career, on 5-of-6 from the field, including a perfect 4-of-4 from 3, and 4-of-4 at the free throw line. She added five assists in the win.
As a team, W&M (14-18) shot 50% (28-of-56) from the field for the second-straight day. The Tribe also knocked down a season-high 12 3-pointers, hitting at a 54.5% clip from long range.
Drexel opened up a 19-13 lead with just over a minute remaining in the first quarter behind an 8-0 run. The Dragons used back-to-back 3-point plays followed by an Amaris Baker fast-break to take the lead during the spurt.
The Tribe responded with one of its two large runs. W&M scored the final five points of the first quarter as part of a larger 21-2 run to take a lead it would not relinquish. In total, eight different Tribe players scored during the run. A Dance triple with 21 seconds left in the first quarter drew W&M within 19-18 at the end of one.
Nascimento knocked down a jumper just 47 seconds in the second to put W&M in front, 20-19. The Tribe locked in defensively as well during the run. Drexel hit just one of first six shots and turned the ball over six times in the second quarter’s first six minutes.
After an Iriona Gravley lay-up drew the Dragons back within one, 22-21, at the 7:51 mark, W&M scored 12-straight points to push its lead to double-digits. Graduate student Rebekah Frisby-Smith and junior Kayla Rolph each knocked down 3-pointers during the run, while sophomore Jana Sallman’s jumper at the 4:03 mark gave W&M a 34-21 lead.
Deja Evans scored the final five points of the half to close Drexel within 34-29 at the break.
The Dragons drew within four, 36-32, on a McCormack 3-pointer just 1:07 into the second half. The Tribe again answered with another big run, this time 20-2.
W&M scored seven in a row on a Nascimento jumper, a Dance 3-pointer, and a Beckwith lay-up to push the margin to 43-32 at the 7:19.
After a Drexel bucket, senior Anahi-Lee Cauley (8) and Nascimento (5) combined for 13 straight and extend the Tribe lead to 20 points. Cauley hit back-to-back free throw line jumpers, before Nascimento tallied five in a row. Cauley capped the run with four more points, including a jumper at 1:05, to push the margin to 56-34.
Baker scored seven in a row to end the third and start the fourth for Drexel, drawing the Dragons within 56-41 just 15 seconds into the final frame. Rolph answered with her second 3-pointer of the afternoon and Drexel could get no closer than 17 the rest of the way.
W&M finished the contest with 19 assists on its 28 field goals and dominated the glass, 43-31.
Rolph finished with eight points and seven rebounds, while Cauley had eight points and four rebounds. Both freshman Natalie Fox and graduate student Kayla Beckwith each recorded six rebounds.
Drexel finished the game shooting 30.8% (20-of-65) from the field and were only 5-of-29 (17.2%) from 3. Baker scored 20 points for the Dragons, while Evans recorded a 16-point, 11-rebound double-double.
The Tribe faces the winner of the other semifinal between No. 2 seed Charleston and No. 3 Campbell on Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m. from CareFirst Arena. The game will be broadcast nationally on CBS Sports Network. Fans can also listen into the Tribe Sports Network at TribeAthletics.com with Jack Angelucci and Andrew Phillips on the call.