Drexel University Athletics
Drexel University
James Madison
Rosseel Comes Through In the Clutch As Dragons Knock Off James Madison 74-67
2/17/2008 2:29:43 PM | Women's Basketball
Philadelphia - Freshman Jasmina Rosseel (Leper, Belgium) came off the bench to score a career-high 18 points, including eight straight in the final two minutes to give her team a 74-67 over James Madison (17-7, 10-3). Gabriela Marginean (Cluj-Napoca, Romania), who scored a game-high 26 points, hit four straight free throws in the final 14.7 seconds to close out Drexel's (14-10, 9-4) victory over the No. 2 team in the CAA. Nicole Hester (Waldorf, Md.) galvanized the team with her outstanding passing and defense. The junior guard dished out a game-high seven assists to go with eight points, two boards, a block and a steal.
Drexel saw a six-point halftime lead evaporate in the early going of the second period. The Dragons twice pushed their advantage to seven points but the Dukes had whittled the team's margin down to 62-60 with 2:26 remaining in the game. After a pair Kisha Stokes free-throws, Rosseel took the inbounds pass with speedy freshman Dawn Evans picking her up at the baseline. Rosseel charged to Evans' right, taking her to midcourt with a right-handed dribble before putting the ball behind her back and leaving Evans behind as she drove left into the lane. Rosseel pulled up and knocked down a jumper just inside the free-throw line to make it a 64-60 game.
After a free throw by Jennifer Brown on the other end, Rosseel found herself open on the wing and drilled a long three-pointer to push Drexel's advantage to 67-61 with 1:39 remaining. Evans hit a high-arcing three-pointer from the baseline to cut Drexel's lead to three points. On the ensuing possession Rosseel slipped at midcourt while brining the ball up and Evans pounced on her to force a jump ball with the possession arrow pointing to James Madison with 1:02 on the clock. Rosseel would quickly atone for her misstep when she draped her defensive matchup, Evans, as the guard came back to the middle to receive the ball. Rosseel got a hand on the pass and deflected it toward the Drexel basket. She sprinted it down and raced in for a contested layup and a foul. Rosseel knocked down the resultant free throw, giving Drexel a 70-64 lead with 47.5 second left.
James Madison would get another long three-pointer from Evans at the top of the arc, but with the game in a two-possession difference the Dukes were forced to foul to get the ball back. Marginean, the CAA's leading free-throw shooter, stepped to the line and coolly knocked down four straight over the next 14.7 seconds to give her team a thrilling upset victory.
The difference in the hotly contested game came down to turnovers and capitalizing on them. Drexel forced the Dukes to commit 15 turns in the first half and the Dragons converted them for 15 points, taking a 32-26 lead into the locker room. Drexel built its largest lead of the game, 11 points, during a span of four minutes in which James Madison committed turnovers on four straight possessions. Rosseel knocked down a mid-range jumper at the 5:20 mark to put the Dragons up 27-16. Hester put on a passing clinic in the first half. She fed Anora Suber (Mechanicsville, Va.) with a slick no-look shovel pass across the block after throwing a head fake to get her defender in the air. Minutes later she hit Suber again, this time it was on a bullet pass from the perimeter timed perfectly with a back-door cut by Suber. The layup made it a 29-20 Drexel lead with 2:38 in the first half.
James Madison came out firing in the second period. The Dukes quickly dispersed what had been an eight-point Drexel lead early in the period to take a one-point lead of their own, 37-36 at the 12:55 mark. Brooke Cornish (Collegeville, Pa.) settled her team with a baby hook on the right block to put Drexel back on top. The Dragons would go on to outscore the Dukes 15-7 over the next four minutes on a series of dizzying back-door cuts for layups by Marginean, Narissa Suber (Mechanicsville, Va.) and Rosseel. Drexel took a seven-point lead on a three-pointer by Rosseel at the 8:03 mark, forcing James Madison Head Coach Kenny Brooks to call a timeout.
Evans would score eight of the Dukes' next 11 points, capping their comeback with a three-pointer from the elbow that made it a 59-58 Drexel lead with 3:20 left. Hester quickly stilled the Dragons' composure with a three of her own from the left side, giving Drexel a four-point lead and setting up Rosseel's end-of-game heroics.
Drexel shot 50 percent from the floor in the game and 43.8 percent from deep. James Madison soundly outrebounded the Dragons 42-24, but the Dukes coughed up the ball 24 times and Drexel converted the miscues into 24 points on the other end. Tamera Young pulled down a career-high 20 rebounds to go with 23 points, two assists and three steals for the Dukes.
Drexel hits the road next week for tough conference contests at William & Mary on Thursday and nationally ranked Old Dominion on Sunday.
