Women's Basketball Handles Prairie View A&M, 53-45

Sunday, December 15

Queens, N.Y.

12:00 p.m.

Drexel University

4-5

Prairie View A&M

0-8

Drexel

Prairie View A&M

Photo by: Greg Carroccio

Women's Basketball Handles Prairie View A&M, 53-45

12/15/2013 2:05:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

QUEENS, N.Y. – The Drexel women's basketball team won its second-straight game on Sunday afternoon, handling the Prairie View A&M Panthers at the St. John's Chartwell's Holiday Classic, 53-45. The win gave the Dragons back-to-back victories for the first time this season. Rachel Pearson, who had her first-career double double in the Dragons' win over St. John's on Saturday, nearly made it two in a row as she finished with 14 points and nine boards. The Dragons never trailed in the game, and led by double digits for much of the contest.

Drexel (4-5) won its first-ever matchup with a team from the Southwest Athletic Conference with the victory over Prairie View (0-8). The Dragons have now won 15 of their last 17 games played in a tournament. Pearson was named the Dragons' Most Valuable Player of the event.

Alexis Smith, making her first-career start, finished with 10 points and three rebounds. Meghan Creighton added eight points and seven assists, the latter matching her career high. Jackie Schluth and Sarah Curran also chipped in eight points apiece.

The Dragons came out firing, hitting six of their first eight attempts from three-point range and moving the ball well in the first half to build a 27-10 lead midway through the period. Drexel had assists on each of its first 10 made field goals, including five from Meghan Creighton. She also had six points on two three-pointers. Sarah Curran led the team in the first half with seven points, knocking down all three of her shots including a three-pointer. Rachel Pearson contributed six points and four rebounds in the half.

After the Dragons built that 17 point lead, they went cold from the floor over the final nine minutes, going just 2-for-8 from the floor over the final 7:15 of the first half. Still, Drexel finished the first half shooting over 50 percent at 12-for-23 (52.2 percent), and clamped down on the defensive end to hold the Panthers to just 30.4 percent shooting (7-for-23).

The Drexel cold spell on the offensive end continued after the break. Pearson cut to the hoop and scored with 16:24 remaining to end a scoring drought that had extended 6:10 going back to the first half. Throughout that stretch, however, the Dragons continued to play strong defense, and Prairie View never got the deficit closer than seven points despite Drexel's offensive struggles.

With Pearson's layup, a switch appeared to flip, and the Drexel offense woke up from there. Drexel went back up by 17 points with 4:29 to play when Curran hit one of two free throws. Prairie View chipped away and got the final margin to eight points, but the game was never in doubt in the waning minutes. The Dragons' overall shooting percentage of .474 on the day was a season-high.

Drexel will look to get its third-straight victory and move its overall record back to .500 when it returns home on Wednesday evening. The Dragons will host Hampton at 7:00 p.m. in their first appearance at the Daskalakis Athletic Center since a 62-52 win over Providence on November 15.