Harrisonburg, VA --
Taysha Pye hit a jumper with eight seconds left in regulation to complete a game-ending 11-0 run as William & Mary rallied for a 63-62 win over Hofstra in the opening round of the CAA Tournament on Thursday evening at the JMU Convocation Center.
William & Mary, the tournament's 10th seed, improves to 14-16 and will move on to face second-seeded Virginia Commonwealth in the quarterfinals on Friday. Seventh-seeded Hofstra, which was led by 14 points apiece from senior guard Natty Fripp (Oakland, CA - pictured) and junior forward Jess Fuller (Queens, NY), falls to 16-14 with the loss.
Hofstra led 62-52 with 3:42 to play on a jumper from CAA Rookie of the Year Joelle Connelly (Arcade, NY), but the Tribe scored the final 11 points. Pye hit a jumper with 1:11 to play to cut it to 62-59, then stole the ball, leading to a lay-up from Tiffany Benson with 55 seconds left. After the Tribe earned a stop, Pye hit a jumper with eight seconds left to give her team its first lead since the 16:47 mark of the second half.
The Pride had one last chance, calling a time-out with five seconds left. Senior guard Sam Brigham (Simsbury, CT), though, missed at the buzzer as William & Mary held on.
Hofstra would find itself in an early hole in the contest as William & Mary jumped out to leads of 11-4 and 14-7 in the first half before Hofstra began to mount a rally. With the Tribe leading 14-17 at the 12:10 mark following a three-pointer from Courtney Portell, Hofstra would use a 6-0 run to close the gap to 14-13 following a layup from Connelly with 8:43 left before intermission. A basket from Tiffany Benson would end the Pride run before Hofstra scored six of next eight points in the contest to take its first lead of the game at 19-18 after a pair of free throws from sophomore forward Ashley Wilcots with just over five minutes left in the opening stanza. The run in all would be 12-4 in favor of Hofstra with Fuller scoring all six of her first half points during the spurt.
The Tribe would regain the advantage, courtesy of a three-pointer from Lauren Aadland with 5:05 left and would end up taking a 25-21 lead into halftime as three different players had six points for the Tribe and Benson added four points and 11 rebounds. Hofstra was led by Fripp's seven points and Fuller's six.
Hofstra regained the momentum out of the halftime break as they opened the stanza on a 10-5 run to take a 31-30 advantage with 3:16 elapsed in the half, forcing the Tribe to call its second timeout of the contest. Junior guard Sam Brigham scored six of the points during the run, with Fuller accounting for the other four.
Hofstra would continue to add to its lead, pushing it to 35-30 on two free throws from senior guard Niki Williams with 15:43 left before a jumper from Benson ended the Hofstra run and brought the Tribe within three.
The lead would hover around three until Hofstra was finally able to expand it to four (47-43) with 9:45 left on two free throws from Williams. Free throws would continue to allow Hofstra to improve on its advantage as Fripp added a pair before Connelly hit four straight from the charity stripe to push the lead up to 10, 53-43, with 8:11 left in regulation.
Brigham finished with 11 points for the Pride, while Williams added six points, five rebounds and five steals in her final game in a Hofstra uniform.
Pye scored a game-high 20 points for the Tribe, with Benson adding 12 points and 14 rebounds.
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