NEWARK, Del. - The
William and Mary Tribe women's basketball team fell to the No. 24-ranked
Delaware Blue Hens on the road Sunday afternoon, 73-57. With the loss, the College falls to 4-3 on the
season and to 0-1 in the CAA, while Delaware improves to 6-0 and to 1-0 in
league play.
Junior guard Janine Aldridge led the Tribe on the day with a
team-high 17 points on 6-of-13 shooting, including 5-of-10 from three, while
classmate Emily Correal notched her third double-double of the season with 11
points and 10 rebounds. Senior guards
Taysha Pye and Katherine DeHenzel each had eight points for the College.
Delaware jumped out of the gates and ran out to an early 8-0
lead over the College, but the Tribe responded with five-straight points to cut
the deficit to just three. In the run,
Correal hit a layup to notch the College's first points and Aldridge followed
with a 3-pointer to cut the Blue Hens' lead to 8-5 at the 16:22 mark.
The No. 24 Blue Hens answered the Tribe's run, however, with
one of their own, outscoring the Green and Gold, 36-14, over the rest of the
opening half to take a 44-19 lead in to the halftime break.
Leading the way for the Tribe in the first 20 minutes was
Pye, who scored eight points on 3-of-5 shooting. Correal added five points while grabbing
seven rebounds while both Aldridge and DeHenzel each added three. As a team, the Tribe shot 6-of-27 (22.2%)
from the floor in the first half, while Delaware went 18-of-34 (52.9%) from the
field.
Out of the locker room, the College played much better in the
second half, shooting 13-of-30 (43.3%), including 6-of-11 (54.5%) from beyond
the arc. Defensively, W&M held
Delaware to just 34.5% shooting in the final 20 minutes, as the Blue Hens went
10-of-29 from the floor.
Aldridge was terrific in the second half for the Tribe,
scoring 14 of her team-best 17 points in the frame. In the half, Aldridge shot 5-of-6 from the floor,
including a blazing 4-of-5 from deep.
Sophomore Kaitlyn Mathieu also had a nice second half, scoring all five
of her points in the final 20 minutes.
Rounding out the scoring for William and Mary were Jaclyn McKenna,
Taylor Hilton, Kyla Kerstetter, and Anna Kestler who all had two points in the
game.
In the second half, the Tribe was the better of the two
teams, outscoring the nationally ranked Blue Hens, 38-29. W&M ended the game on a 14-6 run over the
final four minutes, but was unable to overcome the halftime deficit and fell to
the Blue Hens, 73-57.
The William and Mary Tribe women's basketball team will now
have 11 days off during the College's final examination period. The Tribe will return to action on Thursday,
November 15 when it hosts North Carolina A&T as part of a Tribe basketball
doubleheader at Kaplan Arena. The
women's team will play NC A&T at 4:30 p.m. with the men's team playing
Wesley College at 7:30 p.m.
