NEWARK, DEL - Despite a strong second-half run that cut the lead down to five, the William and Mary women's basketball team was unable to complete the comeback Thursday night against Delaware before falling, 51-60. The Tribe now stands 0-4 in the league, while Delaware improves to 3-1 in the Colonial Athletic Association.

After a tough first half found the Tribe down 35-18 at the break, W&M came out firing in the second half with a gutsy performance to climb back into the game. For a stretch of nearly seven minutes, the College outscored Delaware 14-3 and cut the lead to eight, 40-32 with 12:27 remaining. Although the Blues Hens began to score again, the Tribe continued to press the offensive and with 7:30 remaining, had whittled the margin down to five at 40-45 on a three from Taylor Hilton (Washington, D.C.) and a jumper by Taysha Pye (Bronx, N.Y.). Unfortunately, however, the home team was able to hold W&M off the rest of the way and salt the game at the free throw line.

Pye finished with a game-high 19 points, including a 7-7 performance at the free throw line. She also led the Tribe with seven rebounds, matching the total put up by sophomore Emily Correal (Venetia, Pa.) who had eight points. Hilton reached double-digits for the sixth time in the last seven games, scoring 10. In the extra categories, top honors went to captain Katherine DeHenzel (Bowie, Md.), who had five assists and four steals to go with five points. Sophomore Jaclyn McKenna (Huntington, N.Y.) had three assists and five rebounds. In the last two games, McKenna has dished out seven assists while turning the ball over just twice.

As a team, the Tribe shot 11-12 (.917) from the free throw line, tying for the third-best shooting performance in school history. It was the best performance since Feb. 6, 2003, when W&M shot 14-15 (.933) against Towson, and just the sixth time ever that the Tribe has missed only a single free throw while making at least 10. The Green and Gold also held a commanding lead on the glass, pulling 37 rebounds to Delaware's 28. The advantage extended to both ends of the floor, with the Tribe up 21-20 in rebounds on its own end of the floor and ahead 16-8 in the Blue Hen's offensive zone.

After two games on the road, William and Mary returns to Kaplan Arena on Sunday, facing Drexel at 2 p.m.