Drexel University Athletics
Drexel University
Army
Late Surge Pushes Army Past Drexel 55-49
12/5/2008 6:15:07 PM | Women's Basketball
Philadelphia - Drexel (3-4) came all the way back after trailing by 14 points in the first half to take a three-point lead with 8:51 left in the game. But a 10-0 run by Army over the next four minutes allowed the Black Knights (4-4) to pull away for a 55-49 victory. Gabriela Marginean led all scorers with 25 points and swiped a career-high five steals, but it was not enough to give the Dragons their second home win of the season. Erin Anthony registered a 16-point, 10-rebound double-double for the Black Knights, who even their record at 4-4 with the win.
Drexel held Army scoreless for a span of 10 minutes and 37 seconds from the end of the first half through nearly half of the second period. During this time Drexel used a 13-0 spurt to pull ahead for the first time since early in the contest. A put-back layup by Andrea Peterson put her team on top 33-32 at the 12:36 mark.
A steal and a layup by Nalini Hawkins, who finished with 10 points for Army, quenched the Knights' drought, but Drexel maintained its advantage for the next five minutes on a series of layups in the paint by Marginean, Nicole Hester and Brooke Cornish. Hester canned a jumper with 8:48 left to put Drexel on top by three, but Army scored the next 10 points of the game to pull ahead by seven with 4:24 to go.
The contest was an atypical one for the Dragons in many ways. While Drexel entered the game as the top free-throw shooting team in the CAA, the Dragons missed four of their last seven attempts from the charity stripe in the final four minutes of the game. This stretch included Andrea Peterson's first miss of the season in 13 attempts and a pair of misses by Gabriela Marginean, giving the NCAA's leading free-throw shooter in 2007-08 just the second three-miss game of her career. Drexel is also among the top three-point producers in the conference, but the outside shot betrayed the Dragons against Army, as Drexel shot just 1-for-18 from deep. Army did not fair much better, shooting 1-for-12 from three-point range and just 8-for-23 in the second half. But the Black Knights owned the boards for the entire contest, outrebounding Drexel 41-20 and 16-4 on the offensive glass.
It appeared that Army would run away with a victory in the first half of play. The Black Knights jumped out to a 23-10 led after capping a 16-6 run with a Laura Baranek jumper. Army's advantage would swell to 14 points on a three-pointer by Jessie Coiffard with just over four minutes left in the half. A jumper by Erin Anthony at the 2:28 mark put Army on top 32-10, but it would be the last points the Black Knights would see for more than 10 minutes of play. A pair of Marginean free-throws cut the once-ominous lead to a manageable eight points at the break, setting up Drexel's second half surge.
Junior Jennifer Stjarnstrom ignited the Dragons in the second half with and inside layup followed by a three-pointer from the top of the arc on back-to-back possessions to position Drexel to reclaim the lead. Nicole Hester produced one of her best all-around efforts of the season. On offense she scored six and distributed a game-high five assists and on the defensive end she grabbed two steals and blocked a pair of shots.
The contest was one leg of a triple-header, of sorts, for the service academies this weekend. While Army and Drexel were squaring off, the Navy men's basketball team faced Penn at the Palestra. Both contests helped to build fervor for tomorrow's Army-Navy game which will take place at noon on Lincoln Financial Field.
An additional understory to the contest was the meeting of V Foundation Comeback Award winners. Several players who are on the Army team were part of the 2006-07 squad that was honored by the Foundation after corageously playing its way back into the NCAA Tournament one year after the death of Head Coach Maggie Dixon. Hester, who is playing her senior season at Drexel, is back to full health after battling Hodgkins Lymphoma during the 2006-07 season before returning to lead the Dragons to a 18-12 record last year.
Drexel now settles in for a two-week hiatus from games. The next time the Dragons will be in action is Dec. 19 when they travel down 33rd street to face Penn at the Palestra.
