Drexel University Athletics
Drexel University
Penn
Rookies Help Give Dragons a Lift in 62-52 Win Over Penn
12/19/2008 2:57:48 PM | Women's Basketball
Philadelphia - Freshman Kamile Nacickaite (Sialiui, Lithuania/Regis Jesuit) dropped in a career-high 17 points and fellow rookie Marisa Crane (Emmaus, Pa./Emmaus) hit for personal bests with eight points, a game-high five assists and four rebounds as the Dragons received a balanced scoring effort in a 62-52 victory over Penn (2-7) at the Palestra. Gabriela Marginean (Cluj-Napoca, Romania/Mt. de Chantal) led Drexel with 21 points and nine rebounds despite being limited by foul trouble. Drexel (4-4) used a 21-1 run in the second half to pull away for its first win over Penn at the Palestra since 1992.
Carrie Biemer led the Quakers with a game-high 22 points, 14 of which came in the first half. The Dragons were largely able to neutralize Biemer in the second period and Drexel's frontcourt pestered her into committing seven turnovers as well. As a team, Drexel swiped a season-high 12 steals and forced Penn into 23 turnovers. The Dragons converted the miscues into 23 points on their end of the court.
Drexel trailed by eight points with just over two minutes left in the first half. But after shaking off the dust from a two-week hiatus, the Dragons warmed up to hold their University City counterpart scoreless for nearly 10 minutes while pulling out to a decisive lead. A pair of Marginean layups resulting from steals narrowed the gap to 32-28 at halftime.
The Dragons opened the second stanza scoring nine straight points to take a 37-32 lead when freshman Tyler Hale, who made her first career start in the game, led a fast break down the court and shoveled a pass to Marginean for quick layup.
Penn's first point of the second half did not come until the 13:14 mark when Caroline Nicholson converted one of two free-throws to make it a 37-33 Drexel lead. Nacickaite quickly responded with back-to-back three-pointers on Drexel's next two possessions to give her team a comfortable 10-point lead midway through the period.
The Quakers managed to trim the lead down to five points with nine and a half minutes left but another fast break layup by Marginean followed by a pair of mid-range jumpers at the top of the key from Jasmina Rosseel and Kamile Nacickaite dismissed any hopes of a Quaker comeback. Crane sealed the Dragons' first victory over Penn on its home court in more than a decade and a half with a steal at the top of the arc and a break away layup for the final margin of victory.
Nacickaite helped provide the Dragons' with a complementary scorer to go along with Marginean, who was the NCAA's top scorer entering the week. She shot 7-for-10 from the floor, heading a 40.7 shooting effort by the Dragons who came into the game shooting just 37 percent from the field. Crane came off the bench to give her team 20 solid minutes. She matched her career high with eight points and handed out five assists while committing just two turnovers.
Drexel's win was the first for a visiting team in the last eight installments of this series. The Dragons' last win against Penn at the Palestra was on Dec. 4, 1992 when Drexel played on it as a neutral court in the Ivy Challenge Tournament.
The Dragons are back in action on Monday, taking on Richmond in a 1:00 p.m. contest at the DAC.
