By Dave Johnson
W&M Athletics

Thanks to a six-day break between last week's game against Towson and Friday night's matchup against Elon at Kaplan Arena, William & Mary came out not only refreshed but refocused. And primed for a little history, too. 

The Tribe got back into the win column, defeating the Phoenix 69-53 as guards Riley Casey and Sydney Wagner combined for 46 points. The high-scoring tandem also each reached a program milestone in the victory. 

Wagner scored her 1,317th point to move into a tie for 11th place on W&M's career scoring list. And with 467 points so far this year, Casey is ninth on the program's single-season scoring list.

Casey finished the night with 24 points on 7-of-14 shooting from the floor, 4-of-7 from the 3-point arc, and 6-of-6 from the free throw line. Wagner, who didn't play in W&M's win at Elon two weeks earlier due to an illness, added 22 points and was 9-of-14 overall, 3-of-6 from deep. 

It was the third time this season Casey and Wagner, each of whom is among the top five scorers in the conference, broke 20 points in the same game. Coming a week after the Tribe struggled offensively to Towson, it was exactly what the squad needed. 

"All season, we've leaned on Riley and Syd to do what they do best, and that's score the basketball and lead the team," W&M coach Erin Dickerson Davis said. "Being able to lean on them, it just makes the team more comfortable. We tell them to shoot, we're leaning on them to do it, and their teammates really believe in them."

The win moved W&M (15-11, 10-5) into a four-way tie for third place in the CAA standings with three games remaining in the regular season. The Tribe plays at first-place Drexel Sunday afternoon.

Without Wagner at Elon on Feb. 10, W&M needed a push in overtime to get the win. This time, with the Big Two feeding off each other, the Tribe led by double digits for the final 7:40.

"You can see it when we're on the court together," Casey said. "When one of us is hitting shots, it's easier for the other person because the defense is focusing on one of us, and the other is open."

Wagner seconded that.

"She takes a lot of attention, so sometimes when she's not open, I'm open and vice versa," she said. "It's really fun, honestly. I love playing with her."

W&M also got the job done on the defensive end by forcing 25 turnovers, one fewer than its season high in a conference game. The Tribe had a season-high 15 steals, four by Casey. Those helped the Tribe score 18 fast-break points to Elon's four.

"We watched a lot of film on Elon, and the teams that have beaten them have pressured them," Davis said. "So that's what we wanted to do.

"We also know that no matter who we're playing, that's what gets us going. That was huge for us and helped us get going offensively."

Individually, Davis was most concerned about Elon freshman Raven Preston, who had a near triple-double (13 points, 14 rebounds, eight assists) against the Tribe two weeks earlier. Friday night, she finished with 10 points, only four coming after the first quarter.

"We were switching quite a bit on her," Davis said. "We wanted to throw a lot of things on her to calm her down."

Sunday's game at Drexel will come six weeks after the Tribe topped the Dragons 74-58 in Kaplan. Job one will be containing Keishana Washington, who is second nationally in scoring at 27.7 points a game.

"I know we beat them the first game this season, but we're coming," Wagner said. "We want this win more than anything at this point. We're going to do what we can to prepare and be focused to get the win."