WILLIAMSBURG — After five consecutive wins and tying the program record for best conference start, the William & Mary women’s basketball team was halted by Campbell’s hot shooting on Sunday afternoon, falling 92-71 inside Kaplan Arena.
Bella Nascimento posted her fifth 20-point performance for the Tribe in league play with 23 and a career-high seven assists. Kayla Rolph joined her in double figures with 16, while Campbell (12-9, 5-4 CAA) sported a well-balanced attack with six scoring 10-plus.
The Fighting Camels started hot and stayed hot shooting the ball, making their first seven shots of the game to take a 16-6 lead.
W&M (9-11, 6-3 CAA) would narrow it to five, 17-12, after a Kayla Rolph jumper and two Anahi-Lee Cauley free throws before the quarter would end with the visitors in front 23-16.
The Tribe quickly pulled to within a score early in the second quarter, off a Nascimento driving layup at the 7:27 mark, making it 25-22. The Camels would respond by pulling back ahead by eight moments later.
Rebekah Frisby-Smith kept the see-saw nature of the frame going by hitting a triple and in the process making it only a 35-32 Campbell with 2:33 to go in the half. W&M would twice make it a one-point contest but found itself trailing 42-38 at the halftime break.
The second was the Tribe’s best offensive quarter of the afternoon, going 8-for-14 from the floor with Rolph and Nascimento scoring eight and seven respectively in the stanza.
Frisby-Smith’s second trifecta once again made it a three-point game early in the third before both teams traded consecutive scores. The last of those was a Nascimento step back jumper, making it 48-45 at the 7:13 mark.
From there the next four points would belong to the visitors as Campbell’s lead buoyed between eight and five in the middle parts of the frame.
The Camels turned the intensity up a notch in the third’s closing minutes however, using an 8-2 spurt over the final 3:25 to lead 68-57 after three.
The Tribe would never pull closer than 12 in the fourth quarter as the Campbell offensive attack showed no signs of slowing down. The Camels used 24 fourth quarter points to W&M’s 14 to earn a 92-71 road win.