By Dave Johnson
W&M Athletics

Having lost an eight-point lead in the final three minutes, William & Mary went into overtime with zero momentum. The Tribe did have Riley Casey, and she proved to be more than enough.  
 
Casey outscored George Mason by herself in the extra session, and W&M picked up a needed 65-54 win Friday night at Kaplan Arena. Casey, a transfer from Columbia, scored half of her 20 points in the OT as W&M rebounded from a tough loss at Navy Tuesday night. 
 
"It really helps when Riley Casey can throw in a couple of shots in overtime," W&M coach Ed Swanson said. "She had an incredible game. She was moving good and attacking well.  
 
"She was shooting the ball well, so we were trying to get her on the side with the ball to make some plays. She's a money player. She's quiet and unassuming, but she's got a killer instinct with the ball. I was happy to see that." 
 
After GMU took a 51-49 lead 51 seconds into the overtime, Casey tied it on a drive to the basket. The Patriots answered with two free throws by Amaya Scott, but Casey gave the Tribe the lead for good on a 3-pointer to make it 54-53 with 3:12 remaining.  
 
After the Patriots missed on the other end, Casey hit another 3 to push the lead to four. The Patriots turned it over, and Casey converted a layup to make it 59-53 with 2:01 remaining. 
 
Ten points in 108 seconds. Mason scored only five as a team in the overtime. 
 
Casey finished 8-of-12 from the field, 4-of-8 from the 3-point arc. She was 4-of-4, 2-of-2, in the overtime. 
 
 "I'm really proud of the team," Swanson said. "We talked about how we had to out-scrap them today, and I thought we really did a great job defensively. We won the rebounding margin (45-43) and I thought we won the 50-50 (balls).  
 
"We took several charges. A lot of plays that won't show up in the box score, I think we won tonight." 
 
Sydney Wagner led the Tribe with 21 points on 5-of-13 shooting, 3-of-8 from the arc. Freshman Dani McTeer helped make up for the absence of Bre Bellamy (injury) with eight points and five rebounds. Kate Sramac scored five points and led the Tribe with 12 rebounds, 11 on the defensive end. 
 
"We asked her to play a lot of the four spot with Bre Bellamy out," Swanson said. "She didn't ask any questions. She just went out there and really scrapped out 12 rebounds and took a charge. She played terrific." 
 
Defensively, Casey did most of the work on GMU's Jordan Wakefield, who came in averaging 16.3 points a game and shooting 53 percent (12-of-23) from the 3-point arc. Wakefield finished with a season-low four points on 2-of-15 shooting, 0-of-8 from deep. 
 
It seems absurd to suggest it, but this was big win for the Tribe. Just three nights earlier, W&M lost 66-54 at Navy after leading by 12 points at the break. 
 
"Our team was really frustrated after our second half at Navy," Swanson said. "I told them that's a good thing if you channel. Right from the start, I had a really good feeling from the way we were moving around. I was really happy with the way our team was connected tonight. 
 
"It's November 19th. We're not going to be the same team on December 19th or January 19th, February and March. We want to move forward and get better, and I thought we took a major step in doing that tonight." 
 
The players will have Saturday off before getting ready for Tuesday's game at Maryland-Eastern Shore. Swanson said he expects Bellamy, who is averaging 12 points a game and shooting 79 percent from the field, to be available.