William & Mary headed south for the weekend without its number two scorer. The Tribe returned with two double-digit wins, which catapulted it into a tie for second place in the Colonial Athletic Association's standings.

With five players scoring in double figures for the first time this season, W&M dominated the second half for a 79-64 win over North Carolina A&T Sunday afternoon in Greensboro. The Tribe shot 52%, including 10-of-26 from the 3-point arc, and has now won for the eighth time in its last nine games.

More than anything, though, W&M (14-10, 9-4) played like a team that has become used to winning.

"We came into the game with a lot of confidence and a chip on our shoulder," W&M coach Erin Dickerson Davis said. "From the beginning of the game, everybody looked loose and confident. And even when A&T made their runs, we never faltered.

"It was an amazing team game today. Everybody just came to play."

Riley Casey led W&M with 20 points, all but two coming in the first three quarters. Rebekah Frisby-Smith was next with 17 points, one fewer than the career-high she set Friday at Elon, and was 5-of-11 from the arc. Freshman Kayla Rolph finished with 11, her second consecutive game in double figures.

Also with 11 was junior Lanni Brown, whose previous career high was five. Nine of those points came in the second half as W&M put the game away. Kayla Beckwith finished with 10 points, a season-best for her, and four rebounds.

On Jan. 13, the Tribe was 6-9 overall, 1-3 in the conference. In the four weeks since, W&M is 8-1 (all in conference games) and has risen from tied for 10th in the conference standings to a share of second.

"At that moment, everything was starting completely from scratch," Davis said. "And I said, 'I don't care who plays, I don't care how much they play, I don't even care if we win any games. But we're going to play basketball the right way. We're going to compete and play hard.'

"Once we started practicing so much harder, we stopped worrying about who we were playing and focusing more on how we wanted to play basketball. Once we won a game, they understood that's what it takes to win. Once we won a couple, they tasted winning and wanted to keep doing it."

The game was tied at 34 a minute into the third quarter, but William & Mary created some distance with a 10-0 run. Beckwith had four of her 10 points in that stretch, including a free throw that made it 44-34 with 5:33 left in the frame.

After A&T (15-9, 9-4) trimmed the margin to 50-43 with 1:10 remaining in the quarter, the Tribe answered with a 13-0 spurt that overlapped the third and fourth periods. Brown scored five points in the run and Beckwith added four, capped by a layup that made it 63-43 with 8:02 left in the game.

The Tribe left for North Carolina missing starters Sydney Wagner and Bre Bellamy, each out with an illness. Bellamy returned for Sunday's game at A&T with a team-high seven rebounds. But Wagner, averaging 15.8 points a game, remained in Williamsburg.

In their absence, Casey scored 50 points in two games. But what made the difference was that five players set career highs on the trip: Frisby-Smith, Rolph, and Brown in points; Caitlin Wingertzahn with 11 rebounds at Elon; and Alexa Mikeska with eight assists Sunday.

Before the weekend, Brown had scored 37 points in her career. In the two games in Carolina, she added 16 on 7-of-10 shooting, 2-of-3 from the 3-point arc.

"When Lanni feels confident, we know she can do great things," Davis said. "Syd not being able to play this weekend, she knew she had to step up because she knew she was going to play more minutes. And she capitalized on those minutes. Just super proud of her."

Now the hottest team in the conference, W&M will return to Kaplan Friday night against Towson for its Play4Kay Game. The Tigers (14-9, 8-4) defeated UNC Wilmington 60-44 Sunday.