Comeback Thursdays Continue for Women's Basketball, 59-53 Over Hofstra

Thursday, January 17

Daskalakis Athletic Center

7:00 p.m.

Drexel University

11-4, 4-0

Hofstra

7-8, 3-1

Hofstra

Drexel

Photo by: Greg Carroccio

Comeback Thursdays Continue for Women's Basketball, 59-53 Over Hofstra

1/17/2013 9:34:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

PHILADELPHIA - For the second time in eight days, the Drexel women's basketball team overcame a 15-point deficit to win a big early Colonial Athletic Association matchup, fighting back to take a 59-53 victory over Hofstra. Taylor Wootton scored 24 points including 16 in the second half, a career high. Fiona Flanagan had 10, including back-to-back three-pointers with just over three minutes remaining that turned a five-point deficit into a one-point Drexel lead that they would not relinquish.

The win improved Drexel to 11-4, and 4-0 in the CAA. They now sit alone in first place after snapping Hofstra's six-game winning streak and dropping them to 7-8, 3-1. Nicki Jones added 10 points, six rebounds and a career-high five assists for the Dragons, along with two blocks.

It was a tale of two halves for the Dragons, who trailed 31-16 at the break. In the first half, they shot 25.9 percent from the floor, while Hofstra converted at a 47.6 percent clip. Drexel withstood two separate droughts of four-plus minutes without a point. The Pride also got to the free throw line eight times in the first half, hitting all eight, while Drexel was 1-for-2.

After the break, Wootton began to take over. She got the second-half scoring started with a three-pointer that cut the deficit to 12, then cut to the rim and hit a bucket despite being pushed in the back. The free throw clipped the Hofstra lead to single digits for the first time since the 9:30 mark of the first half, though the Pride would answer with two straight shots to push their lead back to 13.

Nicki Jones answered for the Dragons, followed by Flanagan's lay-up with 14:27 remaining. Her first points of the night, the lay-up marked the first Drexel points scored by someone other than Wootton, Jones and Hollie Mershon in the game. That seemed to open the floodgates for the Dragons, who hit 11 of their last 19 (57.9 percent), including their last five looks from the floor.

Hofstra kept the pressure up, though, and held a double-digit lead as late as the 8:39 mark, when they led 45-34. Then, Jones drove to the hoop and was fouled, hitting the free throw to slice the deficit to eight. After three stops on the defensive end, the Dragons made it a six-point game with two free throws by Flanagan. That was followed by a jumper by Wootton before an Annie Payton bucket stemmed the tide for Hofstra and gave them a 47-41 advantage.

Successive Wootton jumpers got the crowd of 1,011 on hand at the Daskalakis Athletic Center on their feet as Drexel pulled to within two. However Shante Evans, the leading scorer in Hofstra women's basketball history, got her own offensive rebound and scored on the putback, earning a trip to the free throw line as the game reached its final media timeout with 3:55 remaining. Evans hit the freebie, pushing Hofstra's lead back up to five at 50-45.

The Pride would not score again until 11 seconds remained in the game as Drexel would go on a 12-0 run.

It started with Flanagan, who immediately answered Evans' three-point play with a long three of her own from the left corner. After a stop and one of seven rebounds from Renee Johnson-Allen, the Dragons drove down the court and again found Flanagan all alone in the left corner. The junior rose and fired, and as her second three-pointer in 35 seconds went through the net, the building erupted with Drexel's first lead since 4-2, just 2:12 into the game.

While Flanagan, Wootton and Jones were bringing Drexel back on the offensive end, the defense held up its end of the bargain in the second half, keeping the Pride down and forcing several end-of-the-shot-clock heaves. Drexel came up with eight second-half turnovers, and held Hofstra to just that Evans three-point play during a 5:51 span that effectively ended the game.

Down the stretch, Drexel also hit its free throws, going 12-for-12 in the second half and 8-for-8 in the final 1:18 of play. Hollie Mershon, who finished with nine points, collected six of those at the line in the waning seconds, including the last four of the game for the Dragons.

Two straight missed three-pointers on the Hofstra end led to free throws by Wootton and Mershon that pushed Drexel's lead to 57-50 with 11 seconds to play before Payton finally hit from long range to end Hofstra's 3:44 scoreless streak. Mershon responded by hitting two more free throws to end any hope of a last-ditch comeback by the Pride and send Drexel into the locker room with its fourth straight victory.

The Dragons will now look to move to 5-0 in the CAA for just the second time in program history, as they visit William & Mary on Sunday afternoon. That game will tip off at 2:00 p.m., with Ari Bluestein at the mic here on DrexelDragons.com.