BLACKSBURG — William & Mary women’s basketball had No. 15 Virginia Tech on their heels for much of the first half, before the Hokies used nine second-half triples to overpower the Tribe 76-43 on Thursday.
Bella Nascimento posted a season-high 22 points in the loss and knocked down a career-high four 3-pointers. The Tribe wraps up their non-conference slate with a 4-7 record before beginning CAA play on Jan. 5.
Nascimento’s hot shooting started right out of the gate as she knocked down a pair from behind the arc to put the Tribe up 6-0 with 6:18 to play in the first.
W&M provided stingy defense as well to start the game, holding the Hokies (9-2, 0-0 ACC), who made the Final Four a year ago, to just 3-of-17 from the field in the opening frame and 1-for-12 from deep.
Nascimento reached 11 points in the first when she converted an and-one to give the Green and Gold an 11-3 lead with 3:47 on the clock.
After a Hokie spurt, Nascimento capped off her stellar quarter by getting a friendly roll on a triple as time expired, giving the Tribe a 14-13 lead after the first.
Nascimento scored all 14 W&M points in the frame on 5-of-9 shooting and 3-of-4 from three.
After VT popped out to a 19-14 lead just 90 seconds into the second, W&M tied things up with a layup from Kayla Rolph and a 3-pointer from Cassidy Geddes.
Geddes converted in the paint minutes later to cut the Hokies’ lead to 23-22 with 2:51 to go in the half.
When the first 20 minutes drew to a close the nation’s 15th ranked team led W&M 27-24.
The Tribe held the Hokies to a season-low 27 first half points , as VT shot 27.8% on field goals and 1-for-18 from beyond.
As the second half began, Tech started to show the Tribe and the near 5,000 fans in attendance at Cassell Coliseum why they have been one of the nation’s best programs the last two seasons.
Nascimento knocked down a tough layup to make it 27-26 early in the third before the Hokies scored 12 of the game’s next 14 points to take a 39-28 lead with 2:13 remaining in the quarter.
After Cate Carlson hit free throws to make it a nine-point game, VT went on another run, this time an 8-3 spurt, to hold a 47-33 lead after three.
Tech was able to put the game out of reach with another quick start in the fourth, outscoring the Tribe 24-6 in the first eight minutes of frame, leading 71-39. Madison Magee and Carlson scored the Green and Gold’s final four points of the game from the charity stripe in the 76-43 final.
After an ice cold first half from deep, the Hokies knocked down nine of their 11 attempts from 3-point land in the second 20 minutes.
The Tribe was just 5-for-26 from the floor in the second half for 19.2%. They went 1-for-8 from deep in the half.
Liz Kitley led the game in scoring, posting 23 points for VT to go with 17 rebounds. The performance made Kitley the Virginia Tech and ACC all-time rebounds leader.
Up Next
The Tribe is off for the holidays, returning to the court to start CAA play at Monmouth on Jan. 5 at 7 p.m. The game will be broadcast on FloHoops with a live audio stream via the Tribe Sports Network.
