Drexel University
James Madison
Dragons Lose a Tough One In CAA Tournament
3/9/2006 12:00:00 AM
Fairfax, Va. - Drexel came back from a 12-point first-half deficit and nearly had the win. But a free-throw by James Madison's Shirley McCall tied the game at 40-40 to force overtime. The Dragons came up just short, falling 53-51 to the second-seeded Dukes at the CAA Tournament.
Catherine Scanlon hit a lay-up off a post move in the lane to give Drexel a 40-39 lead with 1:53 left in the game. Drexel maintained the score and appeared to be in good position to close out the game with 30 seconds left and possession of the ball. But Drexel was whistled for an away-from-the-ball foul with 30.1 on the clock, giving James Madison the ball. The Dukes' Tamera Young missed two jumpers, the second of which bounded out of bounds after a struggle for the rebound. James Madison maintained possession and Shirley McCall drove the lane and drew a foul. She made the first free throw and missed the second to tie the scored.
In overtime James Madison jumped out to quick three-point lead on a lay-up by Meredith Alexis and another McCall free-throw. But senior Jackie Falson brought the Dragons back with a mid-range and a driving hook shot from the right side of the lane. Nicole Hester was fouled on a drive and made one of two free throws to give Drexel a 47-46 lead with 1:45 in the extra period. But McCall hit a jumper in the lane and Drexel couldn't get a shot to fall on its possession. The Dukes survived despite shooting 4-for-8 from the free-throw line in the final minute of play.
Narissa Suber launched a three-point attempt from half court that banked in as time expired for the final 53-51 margin. Suber finished her season with 87 three pointers which is the third best season of three-point shooting in CAA history. Suber finished with a team-high 18 points. Scanlon added 16, seven rebounds and a career-high three blocks. And Jackie Falson scored 11 points, most of them on clutch shots, and a career-high nine rebounds in her final game as a Dragon.
Entering the game with fresh legs thanks to a first-round bye, James Madison sprinted out to a 14-2 lead in the first seven minutes of play. Drexel got an emphatic stop when Nicole Hester swatted a would-be Dukes' baseline lay-up out of bounds at the 11:26 mark. The Dragons rallied around the defensive play, going on a 15-3 run to close out the half while holding James Madison without a field goal for the final 10 and a half minutes of play. Scanlon tied the game at 16 apiece with a free throw at the 5:14 mark. She gave the Dragons their first lead of the game with a mid-range jumper that made the score 18-16 with 3:35 to play.
Drexel closed out the half with a 19-17 lead despite shooting just 27 percent in the period. The Dragons zone defense kept the CAA's second-leading scorer Meredith Alexis bottled up for much of the first period, holding the forward to just five shots and forcing her to turn the ball over twice. Tamera Young, the conference's third-leading scorer, clanked her way to an 0-for-8 first-period performance from the floor, leading James Madison in icy 25 percent shooting from the floor.
To open the second period, Drexel went on a 10-3 run capped by a statement-making three-pointer by Scanlon. The senior forward blocked a shot on the defensive end and capitalized on an offensive rebound by Jackie Falson to give Drexel its biggest lead of the game at 29-23.
The Dukes battled back to cut Drexel's lead to two points at 30-28 with just under 10 minutes left in the game. But Falson knocked down a clutch three-pointer to expand Drexel's lead to five points. The Dukes would not reclaim the lead in the game until the 8:07 mark when Alexis hit a long jumper from the baseline to make the score 34-33. James Madison would push the lead to three points before Anora Suber came up with a tough jumpshot off a dribble drive on the right side of the key to keep the Dukes' lead at one point.
Falson kept it at a one-point advantage when she wove her way through the lane for a lay-up with 2:40 left, making the score 39-38 in James Madison's favor. Less than a minute later Scanlon would regain the lead for Drexel by muscling in a lay-up to make it 40-39 and set up the dramatic conclusion.
Scanlon, Hester and Candice Williams combined for a season-high six blocks and contained Alexis for most of the contest. Drexel's stifling zone defense held All-CAA first teamer Tamera Young to just six points on 2-for-17 shooting. Anora Suber gave the Dragons 18 quality minutes off the bench, grabbing three rebounds and a steal while playing good defense in the bottom of the zone. Delise Johnson also saw 19 minutes against Alexis and the James Madison froncourt, grabbing a pair of offensive and defensive rebounds.
The Dragons flock of forwards worked tenaciously on the boards, edging James Madison 34-33 on the defenisve glass, but getting slightly outrebounded by the Dukes overall, 48-44. Drexel held James Madison below 30 percent from the floor in the contest and the Dukes converted just 18 of their 30 free-throw attempts. For the fourth-straight game, Drexel held its opponent below 50 points in regulation play, which is the first time in school history that a team has maintained such defensive stinginess over a four-game stretch.
Drexel closes out its 2005-06 campaign as the second-most prolific three-point shooting team in CAA history, making 212 threes this season, which is second only to the 2000 Richmond squad's 232. The Dragon defense held eight opponents below 50 points in victories this season, a standard in stiniginess that was surpassed only by last season's nine sub-50 defensive performance.
Scanlon closes out her Drexel career as the program's sixth leading scorer all-time. She also ends her career as the only Dragon with 1,400 points, 800 rebounds, 250 assists, 200 steals and 100 three-pointers. Falson completes her run as Drexel's sixth-best three-point shooter with 91 treys in her four years. And Williams swatted her way to eighth place on Drexel's all-time blocks list during her tenure as a Dragon.
