WILLIAMSBURG, Va. – The William & Mary women's basketball opens the home portion of its schedule as it welcomes Grambling State to Kaplan Arena at William & Mary Hall on Monday, Nov. 16. Tipoff is set for 7 p.m.
OPENING TIP The William & Mary women's basketball team looks to start a regular season 2-0 for the first time since the 2007-08 season when they welcome Grambling State to William & Mary Hall at Kaplan Arena on Monday night. The Tribe picked up a 76-74 opening night victory over Mount St. Mary's on Friday night. Junior
Marlena Tremba scored a career-high 26 points, while classmate
Alexandra Masaquel chipped in with 14 points. Sophomore
Abby Rendle stuffed the stat sheet scoring eight points, grabbing nine rebounds, adding four blocks, two assists, and two steals. The Tribe and Grambling meet for the first time in series history tonight in Williamsburg.
LAST TIME OUTJunior
Marlena Tremba scored a career-high 26 points as the William & Mary women's basketball team picked up a 76-74 season-opening victory over Mount St. Mary's on Friday night. Tremba, who's 26 points are the most by a Tribe player since she scored 25 in a victory over Saint Louis on Dec. 28, 2013, added four assists and two steals. She finished the game shooting 9-of-12 from the floor, and 5-of-7 from the behind the arc. Joining Tremba in double-figures was classmate
Alexandra Masaquel, who had 14 points and eight rebounds. Senior
Brooke Stewart added nine points, on three, 3-pointers, and a steal. Sophomore
Abby Rendle added eight points, nine rebounds, two assists, four blocks, and two steals for W&M. Freshman
Bianca Boggs, who made her first career start for the Green and Gold had seven points, three rebounds, and a dime.
SCOUTING THE TIGERSGrambling State enters Monday night's matchup after a 85-58 setback at No. 21 George Washington on Saturday. The Tigers are looking for their first victory, before they return home for their home opener against LSU-Alexandria on Wednesday night. Yosha Watson led Grambling against George Washington with 21 points, five rebounds, three assists, and five steals. Also in double-figures were Shakyla Hill and John'ea Thompson, who each scored 10 points off of the bench. The Tigers return their top two leading scorers from a season ago in Watson (12.0 ppg) and Monisha Neal (8.4 ppg). After bringing down 30.5 rebounds a game last season, GSU returns their leading rebounders as well. Both Neal (4.9) and Watson (4.6) were the team's leaders on the glass a season ago. Nadine Domond is in her second at the helm at Grambling. She owns a 10-21 record during her coaching career.
SERIES HISTORY William & Mary and Grambling meet for the first time in series history tonight in Williamsburg. It is the only time this season the Tribe will play a team for the first time in series history. All 19 other opponents have played W&M at least once prior to the 2015-16 campaign.
THE ROAD AHEADW&M will then head back out the road for two in a row. The Green and Gold travels to Richmond (Nov. 20) and Loyola (Md.) (Nov. 23). The Green and Gold return home for a match-up against American on Wednesday, Nov. 25 at 5:00 p.m. The game will be apart of a women's and men's doubleheader as the Tribe men's basketball team will host in-state rival Hampton at 7:30 p.m.
OPENING NIGHT SCORING SHOWJunior
Marlena Tremba's 26 points scored on opening night was the most by a Tribe player in a season opener, during the program's Division I era. The 26 points rank her fourth in school history. Margaret Milona '67 had 30 points in season opener against Fort Eustis in 1963. Hazel Stringfellow '30 scored 27 points against Adelphi in the opener in 1927, while Bebe Fisher '53 also scored 27 points versus St. James Club in the opener in 1950.
RENDLE'S REJECTIONSSophomore
Abby Rendle picked up where she left off her freshman year in terms of controlling the paint. The sophomore rejected four shots in the Tribe's season opener at Mount St. Mary's. Rendle is already in sixth place on the all-time blocks list in W&M history with 72. She needs just two more blocks to move into sixth place all-time.
DOUBLE FIGURES FOR MARAfter scoring 26 points in the opener at the Mount, junior
Marlena Tremba has scored in double-figures in 44 of her 61 career games as member of the Tribe. Tremba has also recorded 10, 20-point performances in her career, including the opener this season. She has already registered 799 career points, which is 13.1 points per game, which currently ranks sixth-best in W&M history. The junior needsjust one more 20-point performance to move into the 10 in career 20-point games.
FLYIN' HAWAIIANAfter registering a career-high in the final game of the 2014-15 season, junior Alex Masaquel picked up right where she left off last season, with 14 points in the season opener. She also grabbed eight boards and swatted two shots. Last season, the Honolulu, Hawaii native, who has had 10 double-figure scoring performances and is averaging 7.5 points a contest to go along with 6.4 rebounds. She has added 66 steals, 24 blocks, and 34 assists. She has also recorded four double-doubles.
TRIPLES FOR TREMBAJunior
Marlena Tremba has now hit a 3-pointer in all but five games of her career. She has connected on more than one 3-pointer in 43 of 61 games during her career. The junior hit a career-best six 3-pointers in the game at Towson on Jan. 6, 2015, and opened the 2015 season by hitting five triples against Mount St. Mary's. The Vienna, Virginia native is sixth with 145 triples made, ranks sixth in 3-pointers attempted (451), and ranks seventh with .322 three-point field goal percentage.
SPREADING THE WEALTHOne key to the Tribe's success last season could be traced to how well they're sharing the basketball. In the 15 games W&M won, they have had 249 assists, which is 16.6 assists per game. In the College's 16 losses, they have dished 205 dimes, but that is just 13.7 assists per game. In the opening night win the Tribe had 18 dimes in the victory.
START ME UP In his three years coach Swanson has used 17 different starting lineups (10 in 2013-14; 6 in 2014-15) in his time with the Tribe.
LEADING TRENDSWilliam & Mary had the lead, at one point, in every single game last season, and the opener this year. Dating back to the 2013-14 season, W&M has held, at least, one lead in 34 straight games.
EN FUEGOIn 18 of the Tribe's last 32 games the team has shot better than 40-percent from the field. W&M's best shooting performance last season came at the College of Charleston when they set a school record field goal percent of .618. For the year, W&M shot 40.7-percent, which is third in the CAA and ranks 131st in the NCAA.
In the season opener the Tribe shot 43.3-percent against Mount St. Mary's.
