Box Score NORFOLK, Va. – Sydney Wagner scored 29 points to lead William & Mary to a 55-44 win over Norfolk State on Sunday afternoon at Echols Hall.

Wagner tallied a career high for the third straight game, hitting 9-of-17 from the floor and 5-of-12 from 3-point range for the Tribe, who won their third game in a row. The Spartans (1-3), playing their first game since Dec. 1, were led by 11 points from E'Lexus Davis and 10 from Mangela Ngandjui.

Both teams started slowly. The Spartans shot 33 percent in the first quarter but held W&M to just 21 percent accuracy. Davis hit a triple and Shekinah Howard made a fast-break jumper in the lane to give the Spartans an 11-10 lead after one quarter.

The Tribe heated up in the middle quarters. Wagner poured in 11 points on 4-of-4 shooting from the floor in the second period. As a team, the Tribe missed just one field goal in going 8-of-9 in the second stanza to take a 29-27 lead into the half.

There were four lead-changes in a back-and-forth third quarter. Armani Franklin gave NSU its first lead of the quarter at 31-29 on a layup less than two minutes into the period. Ngandjui gave the Spartans their last lead of the game at 36-35 on a layup at the 5:18 mark of the quarter.

But the Tribe scored the final eight points of the third period, capped by a long trey by Wagner just before the horn at the end of the quarter, to send W&M into the final stanza with a 50-41 lead.

Both teams made just one field goal in the final period. NSU couldn't get closer than eight the rest of the way.

Davis hit 4-of-10 from the floor and had a team-best three assists. Ngandjui tallied a team-best three steals, while Niya Fields (three) and Howard (two) combined for five blocked shots.

Nyla Pollard added 12 points for the Tribe, who held NSU to 34 percent shooting from the floor.

"There were some things we did better today than we did in the previous games," NSU head coach Larry Vickers said. "We only lost the rebounding battle by 3, so I'm happy about that. But we've got to play better on-the-ball defense."

The Spartans are off until their conference opener against North Carolina Central on Jan. 2 at Echols Hall.