WILLIAMSBURG — Two tries to force overtime in the final seconds wouldn’t go for the William & Mary women’s basketball team, as the Tribe narrowly fell to Charleston on Sunday afternoon, 79-76, at Kaplan Arena.
Kayla Rolph tied her career-high with 21 points off a career-best five 3-pointers, while Bella Nascimento added 20 and four triples of her own to lead W&M (10-15, 7-7 CAA).
The start of the game was all Tribe with Rolph knocking in her first triple of the day to open the scoring. Nascimento’s first trey at the 5:43 would later expand the W&M lead to 8-3.
That advantage would grow to 14-5 after back-to-back layups from Natalie Fox just 90 seconds later. When the quarter came to a close a Nascimento jumper gave the Tribe a healthy 23-11 lead.
Charleston (18-6, 9-4 CAA) quickly battled back in the second frame, going on a 12-2 run to pull within two with 6:47 remaining in the half. The Cougars would eventually take the lead less than a minute later, 26-25.
Their advantage would grow to 40-35 at the break thanks to outscoring the Tribe 29-12 in the second. Nascimento’s 10 would lead W&M at the half.
The Charleston lead would grow to eight early in the third before five straight from Nascimento made it a 50-47 game with 6:09 on the clock.
The Cougars would again respond by scoring the next six points before Rolph got going for the Tribe.
The junior would score eight of W&M’s next 10 points, including two 3-pointers, to make it 59-57 with 2:27 remaining in the third. The margin would remain the same when the quarter ended, 63-61, thanks to a Rebekah Frisby-Smith putback as time expired.
W&M tried their best to regain the lead in the final frame but couldn’t get over the hump. After trailing by five, layups from Monet Dance and Cassidy Geddes made it a 70-69 game with 5:52 to play.
The visitors would string out their lead to six at both the 2:41 and 1:31 marks before Rolph would make it a one-possession game again.
Her triple with 40 seconds left put the score at 79-76 and forced a Charleston timeout.
The Tribe was able to force a stop on the ensuing possession, but 3-point tries from Nascimento and Geddes in the last five seconds missed, and Charleston escaped with a 79-76 win.
Geddes joined Rolph and Nascimento in double figures with 12, she also added eight rebounds, just behind Anahi-Lee Cauley’s nine for the team lead.
After turning it over 12 times in the first half the Tribe had just one giveaway in the final 20 minutes to win the turnover battle 16-13. The Cougars came into the day second in the nation in turnover margin.
Charleston posted 48.4% from the floor and 8-of-19 from deep. W&M shot both 40% from the floor and behind the arc (10-of-25).
Up Next
The Tribe will play its third straight home game, hosting Hofstra on Friday. Tip is set for 7 p.m. on FloCollege.
