By: Dave Johnson
When the opposing coach has to burn a timeout less than a minute into the game, that's usually a good sign. William & Mary jumped on Hofstra from the tip Sunday afternoon, and the result was a comfortable win that has the Tribe streaking at the right time.
W&M scored at least two points on 15 of its first 19 possessions and cruised to a 71-42 win over the Pride at Kaplan Arena. The Tribe began the game with a 19-0 run and picked up its fifth consecutive win, tying its longest conference run.
After a slow start in Friday night's win over Northeastern, coming out sharp was a point of emphasis.
"Coach (Ed Swanson) really challenged us in the locker room to come out completely different, and I think we took that personally," guard Eva Hodgson said. "We just knew we had to come out different than we did Friday night, and that's exactly what we did.
"We know that starts with our defense. So we figured if we could stop them on defense, we'd get more on offense."
Not even two minutes into the second half, W&M led 33-4. At that point, the Tribe was 13-of-16 from the field. Hofstra, which has lost 15 consecutive games, was 2-of-16.
The Pride (3-21, 0-13) actually played the Tribe even the rest of the way — 38-38. No, W&M didn't sustain that intensity level for 40 minutes, but Swanson had no complaints.
"I never really think a game is over, but we try to challenge them with a few things defensively and a few things offensively that we wanted to do," he said. "It was a great opportunity to get everybody in and people working at different areas.
"You know, the game's full of challenges. I thought we did a pretty good job of that in the second half."
If Hodgson's streak of double-figure scoring games had to end, this was a good time. She finished with eight points, six coming in the opening five minutes. She had reached double figures in 24 consecutive games.
Hodgson, who came in averaging 20.6 points a game, played only 19 minutes. She came out for good with 4:41 left in the third quarter and the Tribe leading 55-22.
Freshman Bre Bellamy finished with a career-high 18 points on 7-of-8 shooting, 2-of-2 from the 3-point arc. That was two points fewer than her total in the previous seven games combined.
"I would say I felt good, but I would say it was more the whole team executing the offense and moving really well," Bellamy said. "I think it's all about finding the gaps, and if you do that, the scoring will come."
Victoria Reynolds had 13 points on 6-of-8 accuracy and five assists. Freshman Chaniqwa Gilliam finished with a career-high eight off the bench. Bailey Eichner was solid all around with eight points, six rebounds, four assists, and two blocked shots.
Cooling off after the hot start, the Tribe ended up shooting 50 percent from the field. W&M had 11 turnovers, eight coming in the second half.
And here's a stat Swanson loved: Of the Tribe's 28 field goals, all but four were assisted.
"That shows that we're really sharing the basketball and moving it effectively," he said.
William & Mary has its best record at this stage of the season both overall (18-6) and in the conference (9-4) since the 1993-94 season.
The Tribe also solidified its hold on third place in the conference standings going a road swing at league-leading Drexel and Delaware.
NOTES: The Tribe's annual Golden Game drew a crowd of 1,032. Not counting a Nov. 26 game against Hartford, which was followed by a men's game, it's W&M's largest attendance this season. … Reynolds moved into 15th place on the Tribe's all-time scoring list with 1,155 points. … Sunday's was only the fourth game this season in which Hodgson was not W&M's leading scorer.
