Drexel University Athletics
Drexel University
Hofstra
Dragons Stifle Hofstra For Fifth Straight Victory
1/6/2008 3:25:07 PM | Women's Basketball
Philadelphia - Drexel women's basketball opened its conference season with a record-setting 59-30 victory over Hofstra (2-10, 0-1). The Dragons' defense limited the Pride to just 30 points, which is the fewest given up by a Drexel team in the program's history and the lowest point total in Hofstra's Div. I history. The statement win evened Drexel's record at 6-6 on the season.
Gabriela Marginean led all scorers with 20 points and she also pulled down a game-high eight rebounds. Florida transfer Brooke Cornish, who starred at nearby Archbishop Carroll High, contributed four blocks to the record-setting defensive performance. Cornish matched her season high for swats for the second consecutive game. The Dragons held the Pride to just 25 percent shooting from the floor and 1-for-14 from behind the three-point line.
Drexel took nearly five and a half minutes to sink its first bucket of the afternoon, but once Marginean rattled in a three-pointer from the left wing, the hoop opened for another strong shooting showing by the Dragons, who shot 48 percent from the floor. Marginean scored Drexel's first 10 points of the game en route to 14 in the first period.
The Dragons pulled away with an 11-0 run started by a three-point play by Marginean and sustained by Drexel's pressure defense. Marginean and Jasmina Rosseel were the benefactors of a pair of steals generated by the Dragons' trapping defense as the Dragons opened a 18-8 lead with five minutes in the first half. Alison Lupariello deflated the hapless Pride defense with a three-pointer at the shot clock buzzer after a lose ball scramble, making it a 23-12 Drexel lead with just over two and a half minutes left in the period. Rosseel punctuated the opening stanza with full-court drive to the hoop for a layup to make it 28-12 at the break.
It was more of the same from the Dragons in the second half, as Rosseel picked off a pass and raced a Hofstra defender the length of the court for a layup to set the tone defensively for the team. Drexel pushed its lead to as much as 31 points in the period and held the Pride to just 23 percent shooting from the floor. Narissa Suber shot Drexel out of a three-minute scoring drought midway through the period with seven straight points on a driving layup, and a pair of jumpers.
The signature defensive play of the game came with just under nine minutes left. Hofstra had trimmed Drexel's lead to 20 points at 43-23 and was attempting to get a quick layup in transition. As Kristina Campbell drove into the lane, Cornish shifted over to help on the play and rejected her layup, Aamira Terry grabbed the lose ball and offered up another shot which was promptly turned away by Cornish again. Anora Suber swiped the lose ball and fed her sister for a three-pointer on the other end to put Drexel back in command with a 50-23 lead.
Drexel outrebounded the Hofstra 37-27 in the contest, led by Marginean's eight boards and Nicole Hester's seven. Hester had another solid all-around game, with nine points, five assists and a block to go with her caroms. The Dragons' five-game winning streak is the longest run of consecutive wins since the 2004-05 season when the team reeled off wins over George Mason, James Madison, Virginia Commonwealth, UNC Wilmington and Towson from Jan. 30 to Feb. 13, 2005. Drexel's previous low for points allowed was 36 in a 38-36 win at George Mason on Jan. 22, 2006.
The Dragons will travel to Delaware for their next contest, looking to continue their winning streak by snapping a losing streak against the Blue Hens that dates back to 1999. The regional rivalry tips off at 7:00 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 10 at the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark, Del.
