Tuesday, February 18, 2025

Balanced Scoring Leads Tribe Women’s Hoops Past McNeese

(Tribe Athletics)

FARMVILLE — Balanced scoring and a 22-point third quarter were enough to spur on William & Mary women’s basketball to a 57-48 win over McNeese on Friday afternoon in Farmville, Va.

The game was the Tribe’s first of three at the Shirley Duncan Classic, hosted by Longwood, with matchups against Longwood and South Carolina State on tap Saturday and Sunday respectively.

Anahi-Lee Cauley posted a season-high 12 points and nine rebounds, while Bella Nascimento joined her in double-figures with 10. Monet Dance tied her career-high with nine points with Kayla Beckwith and Kayla Rolph each adding eight to the balanced attack.

Defense won the early minutes of the contest, with a Marley Long jumper pulling the Tribe even at 5-5 with 6:02 on the clock. The next bucket wouldn’t come until the 4:06 mark when Cauley scored in the paint to give W&M (2-6, 0-0 CAA) its first lead.

Both Beckwith and Rolph added layups in the closing 90 seconds of the first to expand the Tribe advantage to 13-8 after one.

W&M’s strong defense showed through McNeese’s (4-4, 0-0 SLC) field goal percentage after 10 minutes. The Cowgirls were just 3-for-17 from the floor for 17.6% in the first.

Five of the first seven points of the second frame belonged to the Green and Gold, as Nascimento and Jana Sallman hit jumpers, with Cassidy Geddes making a free throw in between, to make it 18-10 W&M with 4:14 remaining in the half.

McNeese made a late push to close the quarter however, going on a 9-2 spurt over the final four minutes to send the game to the break 20-19 in favor of the Tribe.

Through 20 minutes both sides could point to free throw shooting as an area to improve upon, with W&M going 2-for-6 and McNeese 2-for-11 from the line in the first half.

The Tribe looked like a new team offensively in the third quarter scoring more in the 10-minute period than they had in the entire first half.

Nascimento knocked down a pair of triples early, while Cauley scored five of her 12 points in the first three minutes of the quarter as W&M led 31-21.

Rolph’s two free throws with 4:49 on the clock gave the Tribe their largest lead of the afternoon, 37-22, but the Cowgirls quickly cut into that moments later shrinking it to an 11-point game.

Freshman Emma West stopped the quick McNeese run with her second career 3-pointer and when the buzzer sounded to end the third W&M was up 42-30.

The Cowgirls refused to go quietly in the fourth, cutting the lead to just seven, 49-42, with 3:36 to play, before a Beckwith layup brough the W&M lead back to nine.

Six free throws from Dance down the stretch were enough to salt the game away as the Tribe took its first of three this weekend by a score of 57-48.

W&M’s final shooting numbers read 20-of-61 (32.8%) from the floor and 4-of-26 from deep. McNeese finished the game 19-of-23 (30.2) from the field, 1-of-9 from deep and just 9-for-23 from the line

The Tribe owned the rebounding battle 49-45 while also forcing 21 McNeese turnovers.

Geddes grabbed four steals on the afternoon while Dance snagged three. Geddes also tied for the team-high in assists with Beckwith, both posting four. Cauley’s nine boards were a team-high.

Up Next
The Tribe returns to action on Saturday to play host Longwood at 4 p.m. The game will be broadcast on ESPN+ with a free audio broadcast available via the Tribe Sports Network.

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