The William & Mary women's basketball team went on a blistering rally in the fourth quarter Friday night at St. John's, closing a 16-point deficit all the way down to four, but came up just shy in a 92-81 road loss.  The Tribe moves to 2-1 on the young season, while the Red Storm improved to 2-0.

The first half was a a see-saw battle between the two teams, with neither side able to get out to a lead any bigger than four points.  W&M started things off early with back-to-back lay-ups from senior Abby Rendle (Reston, Va.) to take a 4-0 lead.  The host team came back three times to force a tie, but each time the Tribe was able to pull back in front.  St. John's finally took the lead for the first time at 15-13, on a three by Alisha Kebbe, then extended to their biggest lead of the half, 17-13, with 1:45 to go.  Freshman Libby Underwood (Rye, N.H.) responded with a three of her own to cut the lead to one, then senior Jenna Green (Clifton, Va.) scored a pull-up jumper in the key to regain the lead with just under a minute left in the period.  The Red Storm had one final jumper to go back up by one, but Misha Jones (Manassas Park, Va.) drew a foul in the final second to get to the free throw line and hit both of her shots to send the teams into the break with W&M on top, 20-19.

The second quarter went much the same way, with the teams trading buckets back and forth, the Tribe working inside and St. John's settling for perimeter shots to even out to a 16-16 quarter.  W&M closed with momentum on its side, scoring twice in the final 70 seconds on shots by Nyla Pollard (Virginia Beach, Va.) and Victoria Reynolds (Pasadena, Md.) to head into halftime up 36-35.  Coming out of the break, however, it was nearly all St. John's, with the Red Storm shooting a torrid 77.8% (14-18) including 4-4 from three point range to open up a 71-55 lead heading into the fourth.  The Tribe also shot quite well, 54.5% (6-11) in the period, but an 11-0 run that extended almost to the five minute mark put W&M in the chasing position.

As the fourth quarter opened, the Tribe did indeed chase, and did it quite well.  W&M opened with a 10-2 run, keyed by tremendous defense pressure from Green, Pollard, Reynolds, and junior Bianca Boggs (Waldorf, Md.).  Three consecutive possessions, the Tribe was able to come up with a steal well before the ball reached mid-court.  As St. John's struggled to get the ball upcourt, W&M kept playing tough and smart, slowly chipping away at the lead.  With just under three-and-a-half minutes left, the Tribe mustered itself down 11, 85-74.  Green and Rendle connected on a nifty pass play low to chop the lead to single digits, and after a good defensive stand at the other end, Boggs hit a three with two minutes to go, getting the lead down to six.  Another steal on the inbounds led to Boggs being fouled at the rim, and she was automatic from the free throw stripe to narrow the margin to four, 85-81.  Unfortunately, that was as close as the Tribe was able to come, as the home team hit a three on their next trip and was able to salt away the game at the line.

W&M Starters - #2 Boggs, #11 Pollard, #12 Green, #24 Rendle, #30 Reynolds
St. John's Starters - #34 Singleton, #35 Littleton, #3 England, #15 Adams, #20 Wellere

Individual Leaders
- Abby Rendle led three Tribe players in double figures with 22 points, in addition to Bianca Boggs with 15 and Jenna Green 10.  For St. John's, Akina Wellere and Qadashah Hoppie tied for top honors with 21 apiece, ahead of three others in double-digits.
- Victoria Reynolds had a career-high 10 rebounds to lead W&M on the boards, while Maya Singleton collected 13 for the Red Storm.

Inside the Numbers
- Despite the loss, it was the Tribe's best shooting night of the season, hitting 50.9% of its shots (29-57).  W&M also had season-high percentages for three-pointers (.444, 4-9) and free throws (.905, 19-21).  On the other end of the floor, St. Johns shot 50% for the game (33-66), including 21-31 (.677) in the second half and 10-17 from three (.588).
 
- The Tribe reached double-figure steals for the third game in a row, totaling 11.  St. John's was able to come up with eight thefts.
 
- The Green and Gold out-rebounded St. John's 35-29, it's best rebounding margin of the season so far.
 
Notes 
This was the ninth time in head coach Ed Swanson's tenure that W&M has shot .905 or better from the free throw line ... It had only happened 13 times total in the preceding 35 years ... Jenna Green had seven assists against just three turnovers, upping her early season average to 6.33 assists per game ... The school record for a season is 5.8 assists per game, set by Katie Averyt '99 in 1996-97 ... Abby Rendle added five blocks to her career total, now at 235 and just one behind George Mason's Trish Halpin (1997-00) for third all-time in CAA history ... She's just 20 blocks from the W&M career record and 38 from the conference record ... Rendle went to the free throw line for the first time this season, and set a career-high hitting eight of her nine attempts ... Victoria Reynolds, in addition to her career-night on the glass, also led all players with five steals ... She's averaging four steals a game this year, just ahead of Bianca Boggs, who had four tonight and 10 so far this season.

What's Ahead
William & Mary stays on the road before the holidays, heading down to Greenville, N.C., on Tuesday, Nov. 21, to take on former conference foe East Carolina.  The Tribe and the Pirates will square off at 7 p.m., and can be watched live online through ECUPirates.com.