By Dave Johnson
W&M Athletics

Three days earlier, William & Mary needed a game-winning basket in the final 10 seconds to win at UNC Wilmington. In Wednesday night's rematch, such drama wasn't required — even if the Tribe did struggle to put the Seahawks away.

W&M led for the final 33½ minutes and grinded out 69-59 win over UNCW at Kaplan Arena. Sydney Wagner led the way with 21 points along with four assists, and Kate Sramac filled the stat with a season-high 13 points, eight rebounds, five assists and only one turnover in 39 minutes.

"We're real satisfied with the victory," W&M coach Ed Swanson said. "I thought our team played hard. We didn't play great at times (and) you've got to give Wilmington a lot of credit. They just kept battling and coming back at us.

"We couldn't seem to get that 8-0 run we needed in the second half. ... Super excited about the win and we need to keep moving forward."

The Tribe (8-15, 3-9 CAA) led by as many as 11 points and as few as six in the fourth quarter. W&M never was able to work it to a comfortable margin but put the game away by going 6-of-6 from the free throw line in the final 43.9 seconds.

It was UNCW's first game under interim head coach Tina Martin, who was elevated after Karen Barefoot was fired on Monday — the day following W&M's 65-63 win in Wilmington. Martin was in her fifth year as a Seahawk assistant after serving as head coach at Delaware from 1997-2017.

"Tina Martin is a longtime coach at Delaware and she does a fantastic job," Swanson said. "They played hard for her tonight. I was hoping they wouldn't. They were an attacking team."

Swanson knew Martin wouldn't reinvent the wheel in those two days of preparation.

"We were pretty prepared for what they were going to do," he said.

Offensively, the Tribe had one of its best first quarters of the season by outscoring the Seahawks 22-18 on 61.5% shooting with two turnovers. W&M had a brief scare when top scorer Riley Casey left with an injury, but she came back a few minutes later.

Casey, who had the game-winning basket at Wilmington, was held to nine points on 3-of-11 shooting. But Sramac stepped up with her best game of the season, which included 4-of-6 shooting from the floor, 3-of-4 from the 3-point arc.

"We've been encouraging Kate to look at the basket more," Swanson said. "At the Charleston game in the first half, I think she didn't take a shot. She's got a good feel for the game and we need her to look for her shot more.

"I thought she did that tonight. She looked for her offense more."

Another good sign for W&M was the return of freshman guard Ruthie Montella, who had missed the previous eight games with an injury. After a partial warmup, she finished with five points, an assist and a steal in six minutes.

"It was great having her back," Swanson said.

Freshman Dani McTeer finished with eight points and nine rebounds. Kayla Beckwith continued her strong play of late with 10 points and two rebounds.

Next up: The Tribe will host Northeastern (12-10, 6-6) Thursday night. The Huskies defeated W&M 67-57 last month in Boston.