W&M Women Down Northeastern, 74-65, Behind DeHenzel's Career-High 20

Tiffany Benson Pulls Down Double-Double, 10-11, and Three Blocks

01/14/10 7:26PM

WILLIAMSBURG - Behind a career-high 20 points and 5-9 shooting from deep by sophomore captain Katherine DeHenzel (Bowie, Md.), the William and Mary women's basketball team outlasted Northeastern 74-65 in Williamsburg Thursday evening. With the win, the Tribe improved to 9-6 overall, 2-2 in the CAA, while Northeastern fell to 6-9, 1-3 CAA.

Box Score

DeHenzel got on track early, splashing a pair of triples to give W&M a quick 6-0 lead in the first minute of the game, and had 11 points at the half. She set career-highs in points, total field goals made (7) and attempted (13), and three-point field goals made (5) and attempted (7) to pace her team. The point guard was also one of three Tribe players to record six or more assists, as W&M had 22 total in the game.

W&M keyed off its leader's fast start, jumping ahead 21-6 with 11:36 remaining in the first period, and withstood the Huskies' rally to go back up by as many as 17 on a Taylor Hilton (Washington, D.C.) lay-up with 28 seconds before the intermission. Hilton also had 11 in the half, and three of the team's 11 steals in the period.

A quick lay-up by Tiffany Benson (Virginia Beach, Va.) coming out of the break put W&M back on top by 17, and the defense came to the fore as Northeastern tried to claw its way back into the game over the next 10 minutes. The Huskies were never able to get closer than nine, however, in the entire period, as the Tribe expertly punctured any extended runs with a momentum killing basket. As the time counted down under the eight-minute mark, W&M extended its margin to a game-high 18 on a pair of three point plays by DeHenzel. The first was in the traditional fashion as the sophomore drilled a floater on the wing, and followed with an easy free throw, before she buried her fifth and final three-pointer with only three minutes remaining. Northeastern did its best to cut the margin over the final minutes, but still could not get closer than nine as the final horn sounded.

Benson finished with 10 points and 11 rebounds for her 28th career double-double, and also had three blocks in the second half to move even closer to the all-time conference record. Her 232 career rejections is only five shy of breaking the record of 236 set by George Mason's Trish Halpin from 1997-2000, and Benson has had five or more blocks in a single game eight times in her career. Sophomore Taysha Pye (Bronx, N.Y.) also reach double-figures in scoring, with 14, and had seven assists for the second game in a row. Classmate Janine Aldridge (Massapequa, N.Y.) also had seven assists, and a game-high five steals. For the game, the Tribe out-rebounded Northeastern 46-35 and held a 14-8 advantage on W&M's own missed shots in the second half.

William and Mary returns to action Sunday afternoon at 2 p.m., hosting Virginia Commonwealth. Fans can follow the game three ways on TribeAthletics.com: live stats and live audio for free, or live video for a nominal fee.