Drexel University Athletics
Drexel University
Creighton
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Dragons Come Back to Win at Creighton, 64-58
2/18/2007 1:38:00 AM | Men's Basketball
Omaha, Neb.—Drexel rallied from an 11-point second-half deficit to upset Creighton, 64-58, in front of a record crowd at Qwest Center. The Dragons (20-7) earned their 20th win of the season in front of a nationally-televised audience on ESPN2 and held off a late Creighton (18-9) rally in front of a crowd of 17,607, the largest ever to watch a college basketball game in the state of Nebraska
Creighton took its biggest lead at 34-23 with 17:45 to play in the contest. Drexel cut it to six before the Bluejays upped their lead to 41-31 with 11:38 to play. That is when the Dragons started a 14-0 run which eventually gave them control of the game. Frank Elegar (Bronx, N.Y./St. Raymond's) scored the first five points in the run and Dominick Mejia (Voorhees, N.J./Eastern) scored the next seven, including a three-pointer with 8:18 to play to give the Dragons their first lead of the game Dragons at 43-41. Drexel shot 64 percent in the second half after making only 29 percent in the first half.
Drexel managed to hang on to the lead the rest of the way. Creighton chipped away, aided in part by a technical foul on the Drexel bench, and cut the lead to two with just 22 seconds left on a Nate Funk jumper. However, Drexel got the ball in bounds and Mejia made a pair of free throws. Tramayne Hawthorne (Steelton, Pa./Steelton-Highspire) sealed it with two free throws with four seconds left.
Mejia led all players with 20 points and went over the 1,000-point mark in his career at Drexel. Mejia was 5-for-5 from the line and also had eight rebounds. Elegar had 15 of his 19 points in the second half and was 7-for-10 from the floor. Bashir Mason handed out five assists and had three steals, but more impressively held Creighton's Nate Funk, one of the top scorers in the Missouri Valley, to just 3-for-11 shooting from the field and 13 points. Anthony Tolliver led the Bluejays with 15 points and seven rebounds.
The Dragons are off until Wednesday when they host William & Mary at 7:30 p.m. at the Daskalakis Athletic Center. The game can be heard on WNTP 990 AM and on the web at drexeldragons.com.
