By Dave Johnson
W&M Athletics

Offensively, William & Mary wasn't always picture perfect Friday night. But the Tribe's defense was front and center, stealing the spotlight in a 62-48 win over UNCW in Kaplan Arena.

W&M forced 23 turnovers, 19 in the first half, and gave up a season-low in points, overcoming some shooting struggles to record its fourth consecutive win. It was also the third consecutive game at home in which William & Mary (10-9, 5-3 CAA) never trailed. And the Tribe is 5-3 in the conference for the first time since the 2006-07 season.

All it took was understanding that while offense might not always be there, defense has to be.

"Our energy kept dropping every time we couldn't make a basket," W&M coach Erin Dickerson Davis said. "I think the most deflating part is that we had wide-open looks that we normally make. It really impacted our defensive intensity.

"It was up and down, something we're still working through. But it's definitely what we try to pound into them, that defense will get us good offense."

Sydney Wagner led W&M with 13 points. Rebekah Frisby-Smith had her usual category-filler night with 10 points, five rebounds, five assists, and three steals. Freshman point guard Alexa Mikeska had eight points, a career-high 10 rebounds, three assists, and only one turnover in 34-plus minutes.

"We had to get ourselves going a little bit," Davis said. "School has started back up, and we've switched our practice time. Second semester has begun, but we fought through it and did some really good things today."

Ninety seconds into the second quarter, despite missing 15 of its first 22 shots, W&M led 16-4. But as frustration over those missed shots rose, Wilmington (4-15, 1-7) went on an 11-3 run and cut the Tribe's lead to four with 4:44 left in the half.

Davis called a timeout and went into lecture mode. Her team closed the half with an 11-2 run.

"It's not always fun when your shots aren't dropping," Frisby-Smith said. "But we've got to stick together as a team, which I think we did. Just talking to one another, keeping the energy up, keeping the defense there really helped us."

With others continuing to step up, the Tribe was able to overcome a season-low three points from top scorer Riley Casey. Wagner nearly reached her average with 13 points but was 6-of-16.

"As coaches, we knew we were going to go as far as everyone else took us," Davis said. "Riley and Syd, we know they're going to do what they do, but we also knew they were going to take up so much attention from the defense.

"So the entire preseason, we were trying to build confidence in the rest of the team. 'Yeah, they're great scorers, but so are you.'"

In the Tribe's four-game winning streak, Mikeska is averaging nine points, seven rebounds, four assists, and two turnovers a night.

"Alexa's family is here, and they literally had 'Alexa' written across their t-shirts," Davis said. "As a freshman, that can be a little nerve-racking. So some of the shots we know she can make, I think she wanted to make them so bad it took her out of rhythm.

"But she played an amazing floor game. I'm proud of how much she's grown over the last couple of months. We knew she would. … She is playing so mature."

Next for the Tribe is Delaware, which comes to Kaplan Sunday at 1 p.m. The Blue Hens (10-8, 3-4) are coming off a 63-60 home loss to Elon Friday night.