CHARLESTON, S.C. — A late run by Charleston was enough to get them over the hump on Sunday, beating the William & Mary women’s basketball team 77-72 in TD Arena.
Nylah Young tied her career-high with 32 points, the most by a W&M player this season, while also grabbing 10 rebounds to lead the Tribe.
Her 14 makes from the charity stripe tie for fourth most in a single game in program history.
The Tribe was able to get out to a quick start behind two buckets from Young and a triple from Rebekah Frisby-Smith to make it 7-2 with 6:58 remaining in the first.
Charleston quickly responded, going on an 11-3 run to hold a 13-10 lead with 2:10 to go before the teams traded buckets for the remainder of the frame.
Young would score 11 of W&M’s 15 points in the first, trailing 19-15 after one.
The Tribe offensive got out to a slow start in the second quarter, finding themselves now down 27-17 three and a half minutes into the period, but would eventually find a groove thanks to Young’s help again.
Facing the largest deficit they would face all day, W&M embarked on a 12-4 run with buckets from Cassidy Geddes, Bella Nascimento and Frisby-Smith with Young chipping in six more points as well.
Frisby-Smith, not to be overshadowed by Young’s performance, had a career afternoon herself with 10 points and 10 rebounds for her first career double-double. She also grabbed five steals.
Nascimento added a layup minutes later to pull the Tribe even at 34-all with 25 seconds left in the half, however the Cougars would take a 37-36 lead to the break with Young finishing the half at 20 points in just 13 minutes.
Despite Charleston taking 15 more field goals than the Tribe in the half, W&M stayed in the game by shooting the ball at a high percentage, posting 8-of-15 from the floor in the second quarter.
Anahi-Lee Cauley kicked off the third quarter with a jumper to put the Tribe up for the first time since the first quarter. The Green and Gold then turned beyond the arc to build a sizable lead.
Frisby-Smith hit from deep before Geddes hit a pair of triples in 25 seconds to put W&M up 49-42 with 5:25 remaining in the third.
The lead would grow to 10 two minutes later when Geddes again scored, this time inside the paint. She would finish with 12 points and five assists and has reached double figures in eight of the last 10 games.
Charleston would eventually cut the lead to six, 57-51 by the end of the third.
Alexa Mikeska scored on a drive to the basket early in the fourth, but the Tribe lead would go from eight to one, 59-58 with 7:19 to play.
The Tribe stretched the lead out to seven with 4:30 on the clock when Cauley hit her first 3-pointer of the season, but that would be the final field goal of the game for W&M.
The Cougars were able to storm back thanks to making seven of their last nine field goal attempts, sealing a 77-72 win.
While getting to the free throw line wasn’t an issue for the Tribe, they shot just 12-for-21 from the stripe in the second half.
W&M finished 45% from the floor to Charleston’s 38%, but the Cougars went 9-for-15 from the field in the fourth quarter on their way to 26 points in the last 10 minutes.
The Tribe finished 5-for-16 from three, and the Cougars 8-for-29.
Up Next
The Tribe returns home for their final two games of the regular season, taking on Northeastern on Thursday at 7 p.m. The game will be broadcast on FloHoops.
