Drexel University Athletics
Drexel University
Temple
Hester Hits For a Career High in Loss To Temple
11/19/2005 12:00:00 AM
Philadelphia, Pa.- Led by All-America candidate Candice Dupree's double-double, No. 19 Temple pulled away from Drexel in the first half and held off a late run by the Dragons in a 66-54 victory. Nicole Hester dropped a career high 19 points on the Owls and Catherine Scanlon recorded her first double-double of the season while going against Dupree in the post.
The Owls opened up with a 7-0 run in the first two minutes of play an never looked back. Drexel drew the score to within six points, 15-9 at the 12:33 mark, but it quickly became apparent that the Dragons' outside shots weren't falling with their usual frequency. Instead, Temple, who came into the game shooting .238 from three-point range, had the hot hands from deep. The Owls, who had five threes on the season, shot 5-for-10 from beyond the arc in the first half, including reserve Candice Borrows' 3-for-4 trey-shooting performance. As a team, Temple scorched the nets for 53 percent shooting in the first half while Drexel was an icy 2-for-12 from three-point range and shot 35 percent overall.
Hitting triples on three consecutive possession, Temple took a 19-point lead and went into halftime with a 41-25 advantage. Hester matched Dupree's 10-point performance in the first half, but the Dragons were hurt by Temple's capitalizing on all four of their turnovers for eight points. Drexel failed to force the Owls to cough up the ball once in the period.
The Dragons would bounce back in the second half after a four-minute scoring drought, during which Temple went on a 14-5 run to mount it largest lead of the game at 23 points. Narissa Suber ended the scoring famine with her first three of the game at the 13:27 mark.
Stacy McCullough came off the bench to give the Dragons a spark with 12 minutes left in the game. She hit a jumper from the baseline off a drive by Suber then swiped a steal and passed it ahead to Jackie Falson for a fast-break layup. Hester swiped a steal on Temple's next possession and sprinted the length of the court for a layup. The sophomore gave fans a glimpse of her talent on Drexel's next trip down the court, rebounding her own miss and throwing a head fake to get her defender in the air then pivoting for the up-and-under layup.
Drexel's next three baskets would be three-pointers, two by Scanlon and one by Hester, who was getting open looks all night, to cut the lead to 16 points with just under four minutes remaining. McCullough hit a baseline three-pointer to make it a 12-point game. Scanlon would grab four offensive rebounds in the final 14 seconds of play but could not get a shot to fall. The senior captain finished with 16 points and 10 rebounds for her 21st career double-double.
Drexel forced Temple to commit 10 second-half turnovers and outrebounded the Owls 36-35 in the game. Working hard to clean up its misses, Drexel outrebounded Temple 17-9 on the offensive glass which lead to 15 second-chance points for the Dragons.
The team plays its third-straight non-conference road game on Saturday Nov. 26 when they travel to Bethlehem to take on Lehigh at 7:00 p.m.
