By Dave Johnson
W&M Athletics
 
It was Championship Sunday in CareFirst Arena, and there was a party crasher. Not Campbell, the No. 3 seed and a 20-game winner in the regular season. But William & Mary, the lowest-seeded team to reach the final in the 41-year history of the CAA women's basketball tournament.
 
Angie Evans Romano and Tiffany Stone, co-captains of the Tribe's 1990-91 team, had made the trip to Washington, D.C., in their school colors. So had Terry Thompson, Class of '67, who played when the game was an archaic "six-on-six" format.
 
W&M was playing its fourth game in four days against a team that had beaten it twice during the regular season, but so what? Stone, Evans Romano and Thompson — along with dozens of fellow basketball alums — had a feeling.
 
And they were right. Although it trailed for 32½ of the game's 40 minutes, No. 9 William & Mary never caved and defeated Campbell 66-63. It was the first CAA basketball championship, women or men, in school history.
 
"First of all, Tiffany and I burst into tears at the end of the game, just so you know," said Evans Romano, who stands 11th on the program's all-time scoring list with 1,340 points. "Saying that we're proud doesn't even do it justice."
 
Stone, one of three players in program history to break 1,000 points and rebounds in a career, watched with amazement.
 
"I was really in shock," she said. "No one can take this moment away from Tribe women's basketball. It actually happened, and we're so proud of them. A great moment for the program. A great moment for the college."
 
Thompson, who sat next to Evans Romano and Stone behind the Tribe's bench, was more in disbelief than shock.
 
"Honestly, it felt like a miracle particularly because in the last few games of the regular season, we were so erratic," she said. "On Senior Day, they just played terribly against Hofstra. If there was ever a time to get your team together, the tournament is the time to do it."
 
Michelle CarneyRay-Yoder'93, who attended the semifinal win over Drexel, felt confident the Tribe could finish without her.
 
"I had no doubt," said CarneyRay-Yoder, a 6-foot-3 center in her day. "My biggest fear was their legs because they played an extra game and Campbell didn't. But they played so well together, and you could tell they believe in the coaching staff and each other.
 
"We've been following them and we love what Coach E (Erin Dickerson Davis) and her staff are doing. We were so proud."
 
A more recent Tribe alum, Misha Jones '19, wanted to be there but had a good excuse. The bachelorette weekend of former teammate Chandler Smith '19, had been previously scheduled for the weekend. But technology is so wonderful.
 
"Me, Chandler and Bianca Boggs ('19) were watching the (championship) game unfold at brunch at the bachelorette," said Jones, an analyst for Tribe home games on FloSports and MASN. "Everyone else, we tuned them all out for a second.
 
"It was an incredible feeling to watch it happen. We knew it was a possibility and we believed it, but to see it happen was a totally different feeling."
 
For Evans Romano and Stone, the Tribe's championship run was as emotional as it was thrilling.
 
"This is exactly what we dreamed of, that someday they would make it," Stone said. "It took a few days, but this is exactly the opportunity we wanted the women to have after us."
 
As an analyst, Jones saw the Tribe go through peaks (a five-game winning streak in January) and valleys (losing seven of its last eight) in the regular season. As a program alum, it made her proud to see the team use their brain power to turn it all around.
 
"Every experience is an opportunity to learn, to figure out what to do next, to make adjustments to mistakes you made," she said. "Watching what they did in that four-game stretch was a testament to that."
 
Behind it all, Jones said, is Dickerson Davis.
 
"You want that person, that leader, you'd run through a wall for," she said. "As a broadcaster, I do my best to remain impartial. But there have been moments when I'm like, 'Hand me a jersey!' That's the kind of belief she inspires as a leader."