FARMVILLE, Va. — The Longwood women's basketball team closed the third quarter on a 19-4 run, pulling away from William & Mary for a 53-44 victory to stay unbeaten in the Shirley Duncan Classic Saturday at the Joan Perry Brock Center on Saturday.

With the Lancers' all-time winningest coach for which the event is named in attendance, sophomore Amor Harris posted her second consecutive game in double figures with 12 points off the bench, adding four rebounds. Mariah Wilson contributed 10 points and three steals as the Lancers improved to 6-4 on the season and 2-0 in their home tournament. The win snapped a three-game losing streak against William & Mary, and is Longwood's first in the series since Nov. 11, 2013, by a 59-52 count at Willett Hall.

Longwood trailed, 13-10, at the end of the first quarter and 19-17 at the half.

"I really was proud of the response that we had the second quarter," Longwood head coach Erika Lang-Montgomery said. "I thought we worked awfully hard the first quarter, but didn't really see the results in terms of what the scoreboard was showing. We were everywhere, we were deflecting. The difference was [William & Mary was] making some tough shots. We weren't able to find the rim.

"And so, we just sat them down, told them, 'hey, reset. Let's start over again,'" she continued. "And so, we came out with a lot of the same intensity that we had shown that first quarter. But then we were able to score and hold them."

William & Mary (2-7) pushed the lead to 30-20 as Cassidy Geddes split a pair of free throws with three minutes gone in the third, before Longwood scored the next eight points to close to within two on a Wilson layup following a Frances Ulysse feed at the four-minute mark. Harris had four points in the run while JaMya Robinson hit two from the line.

A Monet Dance free throw temporarily halted the run, but graduate guard Kiki McIntyre trailed a 3-pointer from the top of the key to knot the game, 31-all, with 3:15 remaining in the period. That bucket set off another extended run — this one seven straight points — as Longwood earned its first lead of the day when Harris hit a jumper.

Otaifo Esenabhalu then grabbed the rebound of a Robinson miss and put it back up and in to extend the advantage to 35-31, forcing a Tribe timeout with 2:22 remaining. The Lancers led, 39-34, as the quarter came to a close. 

Longwood shot 9-for-18 in the frame with McIntyre and Harris scoring six points apiece. The Lancers created six of William & Mary's 26 turnovers in the stanza.

"I didn't realize that was what we did," Lang-Montgomery said of prolonged third-quarter run. "But, I think we are buying into our identity, which is our pressure defense, that style, being able to disrupt teams for 40 minutes. And I think over the course of the game, it showed and we were able to get the stops we needed when we needed them. And it allowed us to close out the game."

Wilson hit a trey a minute into the fourth as the lead to grew to 42-34, and after a Tribe basket, Ulysse popped in a pull-up jumper for a nine-point edge. Longwood led by eight midway through the quarter before a Tribe run made it a 47-44 game with 1:44 to play when Dance canned a triple.

Malea Brown, however, corralled a rebound and raced the other way for a layup and then connected on three consecutive from the line to put the game away.

McIntyre finished with seven points, four assists and three steals and Esenabhalu had eight points and seven rebounds for the Lancers, who received 20 points from their bench and 15 off of turnovers.

The win improves the Lancers to 39-22-1 all-time against W&M since the series began in the 1930-31 season.

Longwood closes the weekend with a 3:30 p.m., Sunday contest against Southland Conference opponent McNeese.