If things fell just right, William & Mary had a chance to pull into a tie for first place in the Colonial Athletic Association standings Friday night. Instead, done in by a couple of lengthy and decisive runs, the Tribe lost for only the second time in its last nine games.

Leading by two going into the fourth quarter, W&M couldn't hold on late in a 66-59 loss to Towson at Kaplan Arena. The Tribe led for most of the game, but the Tigers used runs of 17-0 to close the second quarter and 11-0 to begin the fourth to come out on top.

"Tough one for us tonight," said W&M coach Erin Dickerson Davis, whose team came in riding a four-game winning streak. "We're battling a lot of fatigue, people fighting through injuries and sickness. We gave everything we had but just came up short today.

"We were up two going into the fourth, and I do think some fatigue really set in. I think we weren't playing together like we normally do. People wanted to win so bad they wanted to do it on their own. That happens sometimes. But we'll learn from it, we'll watch it, and we'll use it."

W&M (14-11, 9-5) dropped from a tie for second into sole possession of fifth place in the conference standings. Northeastern can pull into a tie for fifth with a win over Hofstra Sunday.

Back in the lineup after missing the last two games with an illness, Sydney Wagner led the Tribe with 20 points on 8-of-18 shooting from the floor. Riley Casey added 16, nine of which came in the first quarter. For the first time since a Jan. 29 loss to Delaware, W&M didn't have a third scorer in double figures.

"Riley and Syd got a lot of open shots, probably more than they've gotten all season," Davis said. "But (Towson) really took everybody else away. They didn't help off of those kids like a lot of teams have done. It was very well executed on Towson's part.

"We all know we need everybody else to step up and score. Towson took that away from us."

With 6-foot-5 Taiye Johnson and 6-3 Quinzia Fulmore, Towson had a decided size advantage. But the Tigers' rebounding margin was only plus-4 (38-34) and W&M outscored them on second-chance points 16-7.

William & Mary started hot and took a 29-16 lead on a Wagner basket with 8:03 left in the second quarter. But for the rest of the half, the Tribe was outscored 17-0 and trailed 33-29 going into halftime.

"This is all us," Davis said. "This is not them taking us out of what we like to do. This is us taking ourselves out of that."

The Tribe regrouped and took a 44-37 lead on a Rebekah Frisby-Smith 3-pointer with 3:32 left in the third quarter. The Tigers (15-9, 9-4) regained the lead with an 8-0 run, but W&M took it back and led 49-47 going into the fourth.

Towson made its first five shots of the quarter; the Tribe missed its first eight. The 11-0 run put Towson ahead 58-49 with 5:55 remaining.

A 3-pointer by Kayla Rolph cut the Tigers' lead to 60-58 with 2:39 remaining, but W&M was unable to get any closer.

"They never gave up," Davis said of her players. "We knew this would be a rough week for us. We were preparing for that. It's a bye weekend, but our girls have been playing so hard these last nine or ten games. They are working hard every single day."

W&M's next game isn't until next Friday, when it will host Elon. Davis plans to use the six days between games wisely.

"Tomorrow, we'll be completely off," she said. "Sunday, we'll get some shots up. We're taking the girls to do some hot yoga to stretch and relax their bodies a bit. Monday, we'll have off again, and we'll have our normal week starting on Tuesday."