After a hard-fought, conference-opening homestand against Hofstra (3-5, 1-1 CAA), William and Mary (4-3, 1-1 CAA) finished 1-for-2, humbling the Pride the first game 63-56 but falling well short of victory the second, 75-68. With a seven-point victory Saturday, Jan. 2, followed by a seven-point defeat Sunday, Jan. 3, the Tribe women’s basketball team saw many pluses and minuses this weekend and will have to make some big adjustments going forward. To best understand how this weekend went for the Tribe, I’ll divide our two-game homestand into each separate contest and analyze both games individually.
Game 1 — Saturday, Jan. 2: W&M 63, Hof 56
The biggest surprise of this game was the career-high scoring performance by senior guard Nyla Pollard: 21 points on 8-of-13 shooting from the field. For Pollard, whose previous high was 14 points, it was a remarkable tour de force that lifted our Tribe to victory. And not only did Pollard manage to put up a career-high 21 points, but she also had five assists, made two huge steals and shot 4-of-4 from the free throw line to help us win the game. In fact, one key possession in which Pollard shined came late in the fourth quarter as Hofstra threatened to make a comeback, cutting our lead from a game-high 15 points to 57-52 with just over two minutes remaining in regulation. As the Pride threatened to make it a one-possession game, Pollard stole the ball from Hofstra guard Rosi Nicholson and was fouled by Hofstra reserve guard Vanerlie Valcourt driving in for a layup. Making both free throws, Pollard brought our lead back up to seven (59-52), and Hofstra was unable to close the gap before time expired and we won our opener.
Although she’s more highly regarded as a tough defender rather than as a high-volume shooter or scorer — the most shots she’d taken previously was 11, which came against Norfolk State (Dec. 20, 2020) — Pollard shined against Hofstra in the first game and took some of the scoring load off of redshirt junior guard Sydney Wagner, who’s averaging an ungodly 20.9 points per game. And while it’s unlikely we’ll see Pollard put up another 21 points anytime soon or even average close to that amount of points per game, we should all be encouraged by Pollard’s career-high performance against Hofstra this past Saturday. If Pollard can increase her current scoring average from 10.1 points per game to somewhere closer to 12, 13 or 14 points per game, we’ll be in much better shape closing out the season.
In addition to Pollard having a phenomenal game, Wagner was her usual self and staged another solid performance against Hofstra, scoring 19 points on 6-of-19 shooting. For Wagner, who’s led our Tribe in scoring this year by far, it was her first game in which she was outscored by a teammate. Previously, the closest someone had come to catching her was against Richmond (Dec. 6, 2020), in which Pollard and Wagner tied with 14 points each. Ideally, Brendan, John and I would love for Pollard or another teammate to catch Wagner in scoring and become the second shooter this team so desperately needs.
Besides Pollard and Wagner standing out, senior guard/forward Bailey Eichner grabbed a team-high eight rebounds and had three assists. Junior reserve forward Emma Krause came off the bench to score eight points in 18 minutes. Sophomore guard/forward Bre Bellamy, who had started the previous five games but missed much of practice this week with a knee injury, came off the bench and added six points and six rebounds in 34 minutes.
In all, it was a very encouraging victory for our College all around. William and Mary had season highs in points (63), field goal percentage (.426) and free throw attempts (18). We also had a season-low nine turnovers while forcing 18 from the Pride.
Game 2 — Sunday, Jan. 3: Hof 75, W&M 68
We shouldn’t have lost this game — the fact that we did is hugely disappointing. Coming off a strong opening win against Hofstra the day before and playing so well the day of the finale, we should’ve won this ball game and swept the Pride 2-0 this weekend. But sadly, we gave it up the final four minutes of the fourth quarter, going 0-for-4 with four fatal turnovers on our final eight possessions. We had a five-point lead (68-63) with 3:09 remaining, but Hofstra stole the lead and kept it for the final, fatal 106 seconds. Shame on us for letting this one go.
For what it’s worth, Wagner had her usual strong performance, with 20 points on 7-of-20 shooting. At this point, she can average 20 or more points a game in her sleep. She’s shooting a solid 45.9 percent (50-of-109) from the field, including an incredible 39.7 percent (25-of-63) from three. Pollard, meanwhile, who had her career-high 21 points the day before, had a decent 12 points along with five assists. Eichner grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds and scored eight points on 4-of-7 shooting. Finally, Krause scored another eight points in 15 minutes off the bench, shooting 3-of-3 from the field and 2-of-2 from three.
Turnovers, fouls and points in the paint killed us this game. After turning the ball over a season-low nine times the day before, we turned the ball over to Hofstra 16 times on Sunday — fatally, six times in the fourth quarter. In addition, we sent the Pride to the line for 32 free throw attempts, of which Hofstra made a cool 21. (Of the 20 free throws we shot, meanwhile, we made 14.) But worst of all, Hofstra outscored us 34-22 in the paint to put us away. While our offense clicked and put up a season-high 68 points, staging its best performance so far this year, our defense collapsed in the fourth quarter, and we made some fatal mistakes that sealed our defeat at the hands of Hofstra. Pride goeth before the Fall — and so we fell, indeed.
What’s Next for the Tribe
Assuming all goes with scheduling in the days of COVID-19, the Tribe travels to Newark, Del., to take on the Blue Hens (3-1) in their two-game homestand next weekend. Tip-off is at 1 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 9, and Sunday, Jan. 10. This will be the Blue Hens’ first conference appearance this year after last weekend’s two-game series at Charleston was postponed because of positive coronavirus tests.