Drexel vs. Delaware
Sam McMahon's only field goal of the game, a baseline shot from just within the 3-point mark, lifted Delaware past Drexel 52-49 in a first-round game of the Colonial Athletic Association Tournament on Friday.
The Blue Hens (9-20) advanced to play top-seeded N.C.-Wilmington in Saturday's first quarterfinals game. With their eighth loss in the last 11 games, the Dragons finished 15-16.
There were five ties and eight lead changes in the second half, and the biggest lead for either team was four points. Following McMahon's basket, Frank Elegar missed a short jumper for the Dragons. Henry Olawoye's free throw then gave Delaware a 52-49 lead. Scott Rodgers missed a 3-pointer and Bashir Mason could not get off a shot at the buzzer for the Dragons.
The teams combined for 43 turnovers. Drexel shot just 28.8 percent for the game and missed 23-of-31 second-half attempts.
Rulon Washington and Harding Nana each had 16 points for the Blue Hens. Washington was 4-for-4 on 3-point attempts. Elegar led the Dragons with 11 points and Mason added 10.
Drexel vs. Delaware
Sam McMahon's only field goal of the game, a baseline shot from just within the 3-point mark, lifted Delaware past Drexel 52-49 in a first-round game of the Colonial Athletic Association Tournament on Friday.
The Blue Hens (9-20) advanced to play top-seeded N.C.-Wilmington in Saturday's first quarterfinals game. With their eighth loss in the last 11 games, the Dragons finished 15-16.
There were five ties and eight lead changes in the second half, and the biggest lead for either team was four points. Following McMahon's basket, Frank Elegar missed a short jumper for the Dragons. Henry Olawoye's free throw then gave
Delaware a 52-49 lead. Scott Rodgers missed a 3-pointer and Bashir Mason could not get off a shot at the buzzer for the Dragons.
The teams combined for 43 turnovers. Drexel shot just 28.8 percent for the game and missed 23-of-31 second-half attempts.
Rulon Washington and Harding Nana each had 16 points for the Blue Hens. Washington was 4-for-4 on 3-point attempts. Elegar led the Dragons with 11 points and Mason added 10.
 Struggling late, Tigers lose 63-61 to Drexel
The Tigers entered Sunday’s match-up with Drexel looking to sweep the season series from the Dragons and bounce back after a 12-point loss to Delaware two days earlier. Ten ties and 21 lead changes later, Towson was unsuccessful in its quest, losing 62-60 on a Catherine Scanlon lay-up late in regulation.It was a hard-fought match-up and Drexel was just better today,” Towson Head Coach Joe Mathews said. “They made a shot with two seconds left and that was the difference.”Towson jumped out to an early lead, holding a three-point advantage five minutes into the first half before Scanlon buried a pair of shots from behind the arc to propel the Dragons into the lead. Towson recaptured the lead at 21-19 but went cold from the field from there, scoring only six points in the final nine minutes of the first half. Meanwhile, Drexel converted on six of 16 first-half three-pointers, taking a 28-27 lead into halftime.In the second half, the Tigers took away the deep shots from the Dragons, holding them to 2-10 shooting on 3-point attempts.“It’s our mentality that if you get an open shot, take it,” Drexel Head Coach Denise Dillon said. “But Towson did a nice job adjusting. At halftime they did a good job of taking away that shot. You could see our girls getting tired and hitting the front of the rim on a few of their looks.”Neither team was able to pull out to a sizeable lead. With eight minutes remaining in the game, the Dragons held a seven-point advantage, 51-44, but the Tigers rallied to cut it to one at 51-50. In the final five minutes of play the score was tied three times and the lead changed hands five times.
 Drexel Report
With three regular-season games remaining on their Colonial Athletic Association schedule, the Dragons are in seventh place and have a slight chance to go up or down before it's over.
Drexel, which is 13-13 overall and 7-8 in the CAA, will visit league leader George Mason (19-5, 13-2) tonight. The Patriots have won six in a row.
Entering this week's games, the Dragons are just ahead of Towson (6-9 in the CAA) and behind sixth-place Northeastern (9-6).
If the season were to end today, Drexel would play a first-round tournament game against the No. 10 seed, which would be either Delaware or Georgia State, depending on tiebreakers.
Drexel split with Delaware and defeated Georgia State in their only meeting.
The Dragons will end the regular season with a home game against William and Mary, a team they have defeated, and a trip to Hofstra, which came away with a win at Drexel.
The CAA tournament is March 3-6 at the Richmond Coliseum in Virginia.
Old Dominion is the defending champion. The Monarchs are tied with Virginia Commonwealth for fourth place; the top four teams get first-round byes.
Drexel will host Vermont in a nonleague game Saturday.
Dragons Ground Seahawks For Third-Straight CAA Win
Drexel (9-9, 4-5 CAA) overcame a torrid 73.7 percent shooting performance by UNC Wilmington (11-7, 5-3 CAA) in the first half, coming from behind for a 70-60 conference victory. Senior captains Candice Williams and Jackie Falson hit season highs and combined for 25 points in a win that evened the Dragons' record at 9-9.
The victory is the first win for the Dragons against a conference opponent with a winning record and it vaults Drexel into a tie for seventh place in the CAA with Virginia Commonwealth.
Narissa Suber led the Dragons with 17 points and three steals. Catherine Scanlon, who came into the game averaging a double-double against the Seahawks for her career, put in 16 points, nine of which came in the second half when Drexel outscored UNCW 42-25. . Falson scored all of her season-high 11 points in the second half, rebounding from an 0-for-7 shooting performance in the first period.
The game was nip and tuck through the first 15 minutes of play, with no team holding more than a four-point advantage. While the Seahawks missed just five shots in the first period, Drexel was able to hang in the game despite shooting 34.8 percent thanks to hard work on the offensive glass. The Dragons snared seven offensive rebounds in the first stanza, converting them into 10 second-chance points.
UNCW pulled ahead by six points on a three-pointer by Denise Lawrence, who led all scorers with 22 points, with under a minute left. But Williams, who put together one of her best games of the season, knocked down her first career three-pointer from the top of the key to keep the game within reach for the Dragons at 35-28.
The visitors' seven-point lead quickly vanished in the second half when Drexel rolled out a 5-0 run while putting the lid on UNCW from the field for a six-minute stretch. The Seahawks missed as many shots in their first posession, five, as they did in the entire first half. This would prove to be a harbinger for UNCW shooting woes in the period as the squad clanked for just 29 percent from the field to close out the game.
A jumper by Scanlon at the top of the key gave Drexel its first lead since the opening minutes of the game, 48-47 with 8:45 to play. Falson pushed the lead to five points when she nailed a three pointer from the corner and drew a foul right in front of a Dragon bench that erupted after the shot rippled the twine. The senior guard converted the four-point play to make the score 52-47 with just under eight minutes left.
Nicole Hester dropped in a layup off an back-screen cut to the hoop pushing the lead to four points. Hester, who was fighting a foot injury, came off the bench to score four points, grab three offensive boards and hand out three assists in just 10 minutes of play.
Scanlon's three-pointer at the 5:38 mark gave Drexel its biggest lead of the game at that time, 57-50. UNCW would embark on a 6-0 run over the next two and a half minutes to narrow the margin to one point at 57-56. But this is as close as the Seahawks would get. Anora Suber knocked down her only three of the game after a Drexel timeout, giving the Suber sisters five triples on the day, to make the score 60-54. Scanlon would power her way into the lane for a layup just minutes later to push the Dragons' advantage to 62-57. Drexel would close out the game shooting 8-for-10 from the free-throw line to take the win.
The loss was the Seahawks' fourth in their last five games. Four Dragons reached double-figure scoring for first time this season. Drexel outrebounded UNCW 33-30 overall and 16-10 on the offensive glass. The 16 offensive caroms was the second most for the Dragons this season and contributed to Drexel outscoring UNCW 24-10 on second-chance points.
Drexel takes its three-game winning streak on the road next weekend. The Dragons take on Old Dominion on Friday, Feb. 3 at 7:00 p.m. and play Virginia Commonwealth at 2:00 p.m. on Sunday Feb. 5.
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