The two smallest players on William & Mary’s roster gave the Tribe one of its biggest wins in program history.
Sophomore guards Monet Dance, 5-foot-3, and Cassidy Geddes, 5-7, had career highs of 27 points and 26, respectively, as the ninth-seeded Tribe upset No.1 North Carolina A&T 74-66 in overtime Friday in the Coastal Athletic Association tournament quarterfinals.
The roommates made 21 of 30 field goals, including a combined 9-13 on 3-pointers, led by Dance tying the tournament record with seven 3s (on nine attempts). They also combined for the Tribe’s 10 overtime points (5 each), all of which came before the Aggies scored their only two of the extra session with 25 seconds left and the game long decided.
“I had over 50 points from two of my babies,” coach Erin Dickerson Davis said, noting both were in her first recruiting class with the Tribe. “They showed up and they showed out and they did things today that we knew that they could do.”
The teams were meeting for the third time since Feb. 21, with the Aggies winning the previous games by 23 and 25 points. W&M’s first-round tournament win over No.8 Hofstra a day earlier reversed a 20-point regular-season loss. The Tribe (13-18) are in the CAA semifinals for the second time in Davis’ three years with the Tribe and seventh overall. They will play No. 4 Drexel on Saturday.
For the Aggies (19-11), sophomore forward Paris Locke had 16 points and nine rebounds. Jordyn Dorsey, a senior guard who was first-team all-CAA, had 13, as did junior center Chaniya Clark, who was a third-team selection.
In her postgame press conference, Davis mentioned the adage it isn’t easy to defeat a team three times in a season. Aggies coach Tarrell Robinson reluctantly agreed.
“I hate the old saying that it’s hard to beat a team three times in a row, but that proved right today,” he said.
While Davis said the Tribe knew Dance and Geddes were capable of such big performances, their performances defied the numbers.
Dance made just four 3-pointers her freshman season as she scored 33 points with a career-high of eight. She had 18 3-pointers this year going into the tournament and was averaging 3.9 points per game. She now has four double-figure games in her career, and three of them have come against N.C. A&T, all this year. In the Tribe’s two losses to the Aggies, Dance had 11 and 16 points. She gave credit to her teammates.
“We were just able to move the ball around and hit our sets and then my teammates were just able to find me open,” said Dance, who was coming off a 12-point game (2 for 4 on 3-pointers) against Hofstra.
Geddes’ point total matched a career high, and came a day after she was held to seven against the Pride. She averaged 9.2 points in the regular season.
“Miss Geddes and … Miss Dance, played very well,” Robinson said. “They (had) a refused to lose mentality, which you have to play like that this time of the year.”
They were never better than in the overtime. Dance scored the first five points of overtime on a drive in the paint and a 3-pointer (assist by Geddes). Not to be outdone, Geddes followed with a jump shot just outside the paint and a 3 with 1:21 left. The latter bounced high off the rim, hit the backboard and went through the net to give the Tribe a 74-64 lead and all but iced the win.
“It started and ended with this girl right here,” Davis, still soaked in water from a postgame celebration, said as she pointed to Dance. “She set the tone from the very beginning until the very end.”
The Aggies missed their first seven shots of the extra session before their consolation basket in the final half-minute. And that was after going the final 3:45 of regulation without a point, missing their final four shots.
“We had some opportunities to make layups and we didn’t,” Robinson said.
Added Dorsey: “They were moving the ball, taking good shots and knocking them down.”
Dance and Geddes kicked into another gear after the Aggies went on a 9-0 run to take a 53-41 lead with 1:38 left in the third quarter. Geddes scored four points in a 6-0 run to cut the deficit to 53-47 heading into the final 10 minutes.
In the fourth, the pair picked up right where they left off, with Dance scoring eight points and Geddes two in a 12-4 run that tied the game at 59 with 5:13 left. After the teams traded baskets, the Aggies went ahead 64-61 on a Dorsey jump shot with 3:45 left. Kayla Rolph tied the game with a 3-pointer 90 seconds later and neither team scored again in regulation.
The Tribe had three chances to win in regulation but couldn’t convert. They committed a turnover with 1:22 left, not even getting off a shot on their first chance. However, Dance drew an offensive foul on Dorsey and the Tribe got ball back with 1:00 left.
W&M called timeout with 37.8 seconds left on the game clock and 8 on shot clock. Geddes, inbounding the ball in front of her team’s bench, found Rolph, who gave it back to Geddes for a driving layup, but Clark blocked it.
N.C. A&T called timeout with 33.4 left, but the Tribe forced a shot clock violation with 4.7 seconds left. Again, the Tribe inbounded in front of their bench, but Rolph’s shot from just beyond the foul line missed.
Robinson mentioned his team’s failures to execute coming out of timeouts, which was uncharacteristic. However, he credited the Tribe.
“That goes back to their game plan, just a great job by Coach Dickerson, and her young women stepped up,” he said.
The Tribe, which shot just 25.5 on 3-pointers in the regular season, connected on 11 of 19 (57.9 percent) against the Aggies, including their first three field goals of the game.
Dance opened the scoring with a corner 3, and about 90 seconds left added another. Bella Nascimento (5 points) also hit a corner 3 and the Tribe were up 9-4. The Aggies took their first lead (15-14) with 1:24 left in the first quarter and ended on a 10-0 run for a 20-14 lead. Of the Tribe’s five field goals in the first 10 minutes, four were 3-pointers.
The Aggies extended their run to 12-0 with the first two points of the second quarter, but the Tribe answered with a 9-2 run, closing the gap to 24-23. Geddes (6) and Dance (3) accounted for all the points in the run. After four more lead changes and two more ties, the game was tied at 34 at the half. Geddes had 13 points the first 20 minutes, and Dance 11.
An 8-2 run by the Aggies in the first 95 seconds coming out of the break forced W&M to call a timeout. A short while later, the Aggies led 53-41 late in the third, before Geddes and Dance went to work, scoring 14 of the Tribe’s final 23 points in regulation and all 10 in the overtime. The Tribe were 1-2 in previous OT games this season.
“The next person stepped up and did it,” Davis said. “I’m just super proud of them for really locking in to what we said we needed to be successful.”
In addition to great shooting, the Tribe also outrebounded the Aggies 40-34.
“We knew that defense was important and obviously rebounding. You have to rebound the basketball. You can’t give people so many opportunities,” Davis said. “We had to be very lased focused in the simple things.
Robinson was straightforward in his assessment.
“There was not much that we could have done,” he said. “They got going (against Hofstra) and they played with a lot of confidence today. They survived a lot of runs that we made.”
Dance pointed to momentum, especially on her 3-pointers.
“I think momentum and just my teammates saying I got the next one, shoot the next one,” she said. “I just needed to do what it takes to help my team win. That was really all I was thinking.”
Nascimento, a senior guard who was averaging 15.9 points and 3.7 rebounds, was just 2 for 8 from the field. However, she had four rebounds, three assists, one block and played great defense. Freshman forward Natalie Fox, who had nine points and six rebounds against Hofstra, played just 11 minutes because of foul trouble, eventually fouling out in the first minute of overtime. She picked up her third and fourth fouls nine seconds apart in the first minute of the second half and played just another 1:13 in regulation. She didn’t score and had just one rebound.
“They did a great job. Hats go off to them,” Robinson said. “They showed up in this moment and in this tournament ready to win and advance, and they did.”