By Dave Johnson
W&M Athletics
For a team battling depth issues, the fourth quarter can become Mount Everest. William & Mary was able to survive that two days earlier at Hofstra, but not so Sunday afternoon at Northeastern.
Trailing by four points with 7½ minutes remaining, the Tribe was unable to make up any ground and fell to the Huskies 67-57 in Boston. A four-point possession midway through the final quarter helped Northeastern put the game away.
"The fourth quarter has been our bugaboo a little bit," W&M coach Ed Swanson said. "We had it to a four-point game there and we were playing well, playing aggressive. But turnovers and defensive lapses at the most crucial times did us in.
"The second leg of a trip, especially when you have to fly, is tough. But I thought we played with great energy, great effort, throughout the entire game."
For the second game in three days, guards Riley Casey and Sydney Wagner played all 40 minutes and Kate Sramac logged 37. The Tribe had a thin bench to begin with but is now also without reserve guard Ruthie Montella with an injury.
Casey had another strong game with 15 points on 6-of-13 shooting, 3-of-9 behind the 3-point arc. Forward Bre Bellamy added 11 points in 26 foul-plagued minutes, and Wagner finished with 10.
Two and a half minutes into the fourth quarter, the Tribe cut Northeastern's lead to 50-46 on Wagner's layup following a steal by Sramac. W&M forced two turnovers on the Huskies' next two possessions but was unable to capitalize.
Claudia Soriano's jumper extended Northeastern's lead to 52-46. Then, following a missed jumper, came a key — if not the key — sequence.
The Huskies' Kendall Currence hit a short jumper with 5:39 remaining. As she did, Bellamy was called for a foul while boxing out Northeastern's Katie May — who sold it a bit by stumbling to the floor. The basket counted, and Northeastern inbounded.
Soriano then was fouled by Casey, and her two free throws pushed the Huskies' lead to 56-46.
"We're not a team that scores in bunches right now, and a 10-point lead sometimes is like a 15- or 20-point lead because of how hard we work to score," Swanson said. "We get very few transitional baskets. A 10-point lead in the fourth quarter is tough for us to overcome at this time."
Another key stretch was the second quarter. The Tribe had closed the first by making six of its last seven shots for an 18-16 lead. But in the second, W&M went 3-of-9 from the field with eight turnovers in 18 possessions.
Three of those turnovers were live ball and led directly to seven Northeastern points. Down two going into the second quarter, the Huskies were up seven at the break.
"Live-ball turnovers are a killer," Swanson said. "And we took some quick bad shots, I thought. Turnovers and quick shots are the first pass to a fast break. That's what the game came down to.
"They got a couple of easy transitional baskets, and we didn't. In a 10-point game, that's huge."
NEXT UP: The Tribe will return to Kaplan Arena for games against the top two teams in the conference — Delaware on Friday night, and Drexel on Sunday afternoon.
