WILLIAMSBURG — Timely shots down the stretch were enough for Elon to sneak past William & Mary women’s basketball in overtime, 70-66, on Sunday afternoon at Kaplan Arena.
Bella Nascimento led the Tribe with a career-high 24 points, but the Phoenix was able to outscore W&M 34-20 in the fourth quarter and the extra session to earn the win.
The result brings both teams to 1-1 in the CAA after the first weekend of conference play.
The two sides would trade buckets throughout the first quarter, with Kayla Rolph hitting a 3-pointer off a Nascimento steal to give W&M (4-9, 1-1 CAA) an early 5-2 lead. Cassidy Geddes would hit a triple of her own minutes later, making it 10-6 at the 3:56 mark.
Elon (7-6, 1-1 CAA) would cut that lead in half over the remainder of the frame, however, as the Tribe held a 12-10 advantage after one.
W&M would pop back ahead by two possessions, 21-15, three minutes into the second thanks to four points from a Nascimento, a jumper from Monet Dance and a Rolph trifecta.
Elon used strong defense over the next couple minutes and four straight points to cut it to two at the 4:46 mark. That was before Jana Sallman and Rolph each converted to push the lead back to six.
From there, the remainder of the half belonged to the Phoenix, going on a 9-2 run to lead 28-27 at the break.
Rolph led all scorers after the first 20 minutes with 10 points to go with six rebounds. She would finish the game with 15 points for her third double-digit performance in the last four games for the Tribe.
W&M would answer Elon’s run to end the first half with a spurt of their own to begin the third.
Nascimento scored twice in the paint and added a 3-pointer, with a Geddes bucket in between, to get the Tribe off to a 9-0 start, and a 36-28 lead, with 5:34 to play in the frame.
After Elon cut it to four with 4:00 to go, W&M used another run, this time of the 10-2 variety, to lead by a dozen. Sophia LeGoullon and Nascimento would cap the run with a triple and a layup respectively before the Phoenix scored at the buzzer to make it 46-36 after three.
After being outscored 19-8 in the third the Phoenix found their recipe for success on both offense and defense in the fourth.
Nascimento hit from behind the arc to give W&M a 55-44 lead at the midway mark of the stanza before Elon used a combination of stops and scores to tie the game at 55-all with 1:33 to go in regulation.
With 1:09 remaining Nascimento would briefly put the Tribe back in front with a pair of free throws before Elon tied the game again with 35 seconds to play. Those would be the last points of regulation with the game headed to overtime at 57-57.
The Phoenix outscored W&M 21-11 in the fourth while shooting 8-for-15 and holding the Tribe to 2-of-10 to get the game to overtime.
At the start of the extra session Sallman hit two from the line before Elon would score eight straight to lead 65-59 with 2:30 to play. From there the Tribe attempted to play catch up with Geddes scoring five and Nascimento adding a 3-pointer down the stretch, but the Phoenix did what they needed to to close the game out and earn a 70-66 win.
Geddes ended the game with 11 points to join Nascimento and Rolph in double figures for W&M. All three players played more than 40 minutes on the afternoon. Sallman led the Tribe on the glass with eight boards to go with nine points. Geddes led the team in assists with four.
Elon posted 40% from the floor and 4-for-22 from deep while the Tribe finished 36.1% and 9-of-22 respectively. The Phoenix can point to the rebound margin as a key factor in their win, outboarding the Tribe 48-33 and 30-14 over the last 25 minutes.
Up Next
The Tribe heads north to play Stony Brook on Friday for its first conference road contest. Tip is set for 7 p.m. on Long Island with the game broadcast on FloCollege and an audio broadcast on the Tribe Sports Network.
