Drexel University
La Salle
Dragons Come From Behind To Beat La Salle in Home Opener
11/17/2007 4:17:39 PM | Women's Basketball
Philadelphia, Pa. - Playing for the first time this season on the friendly hardwood of the Daskalakis Athletic Center, Drexel (1-2) solved its shooting problems at the expense of the La Salle Explorers (1-2). Gabriela Marginean compiled her second consecutive double-double with 28 points and 13 rebounds in a 57-50 Drexel victory. Carlene Hightower led all scorers with 30 points and also grabbed 14 rebounds in the losing effort. The Dragons shot 52.9 percent in the second half and used a 26-6 run to pull away from La Salle early in the period.
Senior guard Andrea Peterson turned in one of her finest performances as a Dragon. The St. John's transfer drilled two key three-pointers during a span of just over 15 minutes that Drexel held La Salle without a field goal. Peterson finished the game with 13 points to go with four boards and three steals.
Marginean ignited Drexel's run when she launched a three-pointer from the left elbow. The shot went just long and caromed off the far side of the rim and then hit the backboard. Marginean sprinted across the lane and was the first player to get there, collecting the rebound of her own shot and laying it back in to cut La Salle's lead to 16-13. Minutes later she would deposit another layup cutting off a screen to give Drexel its first lead of the game, 17-16.
La Salle knocked down four free throws on its next two possessions to reclaim the lead. Peterson made sure the Explorers' advantage was short-lived, however, as she hit a three-pointer from the corner to it the game at 20 apiece. Marginean made a step-back three-pointer on the Dragons' next possession coming out of a media timeout which gave Drexel a lead it would not relinquish.
Drexel took a 25-22 lead into halftime and came out breathing fire. The Dragons hit jumpers on three straight possessions going into the first media timeout of the half. Then they turned up the defensive pressure as Marginean and Narissa Suber poached passes at the perimeter on two consecutive La Salle possessions and sprinted in for layups that gave Drexel its largest lead of the game at 35-22 and forced Head Coach Tom Lochner to take a timeout.
On the defensive side, Drexel minimized the impact of Hightower in the second half. After scoring 13 of La Salle's 22 first-half points, Hightower was held without a basket until the 9:15 mark in the second half when she knocked down a pair of free-throws. With Hightower negated on the interior for much of the period, La Salle's offense sputtered on the perimeter as the Explorers shot just 1-for-12 from deep.
Once Hightower hit her stride in the waning minutes of the second half, it was too late for the Explorers to mount a comeback. A jumper by Alyse Hoover in the lane cut Drexel's lead to seven points with 6:35 remaining. But Marginean dispersed any notions of a rally by scoring seven straight points for Drexel, capped by a follow-up layup on a miss by Narissa Suber that gave the Dragons a 49-36 lead. She would go on to score Drexel's next 12 points and the Dragons closed out the game shooting 9-of-10 from the free-throw line.
Drexel's victort is the second straight for the Dragons over the Explorers when playing at the DAC. The Dragons will be back on the road next week, taking on Army at 7:00 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 20.
