William and Mary continued a tough stretch of its schedule with a rematch against Delaware. The Blue Hens entered the day in fourth place in the Colonial Athletic Association standings, meaning that the Tribe’s last four games came against the top four teams in the CAA. However, the College did enter Sunday’s contest with some momentum after a thrilling triple-overtime triumph over Drexel, snapping the Dragons’ 12-game winning streak. Meanwhile, the Blue Hens had won four of their last five games, including a victory over Elon at home on Friday night. Sunday, the Tribe (13-14, 6-10 CAA) lost to the Blue Hens (15-13, 10-6 CAA) again, 68-52. Delaware used an offensive explosion in the third quarter to turn a four-point halftime deficit into a double-digit victory on their senior day.
After trailing 2-0 in the first minute of action, the Blue Hens bounced back with five-straight points, including a go-ahead three-pointer by guard Abby Gonzales. But on the ensuing possession, freshman guard Eva Hodgson recorded her first points of the afternoon with a three-pointer of her own to knot the score at five. However, both offenses stalled over the next three minutes and the Blue Hens led in a low-scoring game, 7-5, at the five-minute mark of the opening quarter. Boggs propelled the College back into lead with back-to-back buckets. First, Boggs drained a triple from the top of the key, before blowing by the Blue Hens’ defense for a layup to make the score 10-7 in favor of the Tribe at the media timeout. The Blue Hens finally stopped their scoring drought with one minute remaining in the first quarter and ultimately took an 11-10 edge to the second quarter. Neither team shot the ball well in the first quarter, with both teams shooting just below 30 percent from the floor.
Boggs broke a nearly six-minute scoring drought to give her the Tribe’s last seven points and cut the College’s deficit back to one point with under eight minutes to play in the second quarter. After the Blue Hens answered, Boggs whipped a pass down low to sophomore center Gabby Rogers who finished off the glass to make the score 15-14 with six minutes to play before halftime. On the next offensive possession, junior forward Victoria Reynolds got on the scoreboard with a hook shoot to help the Tribe inch back into the lead, 16-15. After the media timeout, Hodgson gave the College its biggest lead thus far, courtesy of her second three-pointer of the afternoon. The Blue Hens clawed back in front a couple of minutes later, but Hodgson stayed hot from behind the arc, hitting her third triple of the game to make the score 24-22 in favor of the Tribe with less than two minutes to play in the quarter. Hodgson and Boggs each tallied nine points in the opening 20 minutes to the lead the College to a small lead, 26-22, at the break.
The Blue Hens racked up six of the first eight points of the third quarter to draw even with just over eight minutes to go in the quarter. After the College went back up by two, junior guard Bailey Kargo hit her first three-pointer of the game to make it 31-30 Blue Hens. A little over a minute later, Kargo knocked down another jumper from the corner to give the Blue Hens a 35-30 advantage. Tribe head coach Ed Swanson called a timeout as the Blue Hens earned their largest lead of the game so far. Freshman forward Emma Krause stopped the bleeding with a three-pointer of her own to cut the Tribe’s deficit to two points near the midway point of the third quarter. However, the Blue Hens stayed hot, scoring 25 points in the first seven minutes of the quarter en route to a 47-35 advantage late in the third quarter. After the College got within two, the Blue Hens went on a quick 10-0 spurt to take their first double-digit lead of the afternoon. Hodgson finally stopped the run with her fourth three-pointer of the contest to get the deficit back to single-digits. After only mustering 22 points in the first half, the Blue Hens exploded for 29 points in the third quarter to hold a comfortable 11-point lead, 51-40, with 10 minutes to play in their final home game of the regular season.
The Tribe started its fourth-quarter comeback attempt with a layup by senior guard Misha Jones before forcing Delaware to commit an offensive foul. However, the Blue Hens quickly ended any chance of a comeback with five-straight points to stretch their lead to 14 points with seven minutes remaining. The Tribe never got the deficit into single-digits again and the Blue Hens cruised to the finish line to hand the Tribe a 68-52 loss.
The Blue Hens were led by guard Alison Lewis who tallied 16 points and seven rebounds. In total, the Blue Hens had four players in double-figures. Hodgson was the only player for the Tribe to eclipse double-figures with 17 points, including five three-pointers. In the loss, Boggs became the first player to reach 1,000 points, 500 rebounds and 300 assists for a career in Tribe women’s basketball history. The College will wrap up its regular season schedule with home games against Northeastern and Hofstra next weekend.
