BOSTON, Mass. — The William & Mary women’s basketball team used a 23-9 fourth quarter advantage to storm past Northeastern on Sunday afternoon for a 74-66 win in Boston.
Bella Nascimento led the Tribe with 24 points, her second consecutive 20-point performance and fourth of the season, while Kayla Rolph joined her in double-figures with 12.
Both offenses were on fire in the opening half.
Monet Dance hit pull-up jumper at the 5:25 mark of the opening quarter to give W&M (6-10, 3-2 CAA) an 8-5 lead before the Huskies answered with buckets of their own.
The hosts would take the lead 14-12 three minutes later before Kayla Rolph would tie the game with a layup. The quarter would end with Northeastern (1-13, 0-5 CAA) up 17-16.
The fireworks really picked up in the second frame with each team answering the other in rapid succession.
With the Huskies up 26-23 halfway through the quarter, Nascimento would hit three 3-pointers, only to be answered by four Northeastern triples in a four-minute span.
Cassidy Geddes would end the half with a free throw and jumper to beat the buzzer, and when the dust had settled the Huskies held a 40-37 lead.
Northeastern shot a blistering 16-of-25 from the field in the first half, while making 8-of-13 tries from behind the arc. The Tribe was also above 50% from the floor, going 14-for-27.
The Huskies would grow their lead to eight, 47-39 in the first 2:30 of the third, but W&M slowly chipped away until a pair of Geddes free throws made it a one-possession game again, 51-49, at the 2:18 mark.
Two late buckets would grow the lead again for Northeastern making it 57-51 after three.
W&M owned the fourth frame with a Nascimento jumper and Rolph triple kicking off the final 10 minutes.
Nascimento would tie it from deep, 59-59, with 6:47 to go in regulation before Dance added another triple moments later to give W&M its first lead of the half at 62-61.
Rolph would follow with another trifecta at the 5:52 mark and the Tribe never looked back from there.
Buckets from Sophia LeGoullon, Nascimento and Dance would seal the game down the stretch with Geddes and Dance also adding insurance free throws in what would be a 74-66 Tribe win.
W&M held the Huskies to just 3-for-12 from the floor in the fourth and 0-for-5 from behind the arc while going 8-of-17 and 4-for-7 themselves.
After being unconscious from deep in the first half the Huskies only hit once from 3-point land in the final 20 minutes. The Tribe also took immaculate care of the ball in the final two quarters, committing zero turnovers after eight in the first half.
Nascimento’s 24 came on an efficient 10-for-18 from the floor and 4-of-7 from deep. Anahi-Lee Cauley led the Tribe with four assists, while Natalie Fox grabbed a team-high seven rebounds to go with nine points in her first career start.
Up Next
The Tribe returns to Kaplan Arena to host UNCW on Friday night. The game will tip at 7 p.m. on FloCollge and MASN.