Women's Basketball Bounced in 2OT at Northeastern, 78-73

Sunday, February 23

Boston, Mass.

2:00 p.m.

Drexel University

12-14, 7-6CAA

Northeastern

11-15, 5-8CAA

OT 1

OT 2

DREXEL

Northeastern

Photo by: Greg Carroccio

Women's Basketball Bounced in 2OT at Northeastern, 78-73

2/23/2014 4:15:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

BOSTON – The Drexel women's basketball team made Northeastern work for its first victory in the series between the two teams in over six years. The Dragons lead nearly the entire way in regulation, but a late tying bucket by the Huskies sent the game to overtime. It took two overtimes for an outcome to be finalized before Northeastern held on for a 78-73 victory.

The loss snapped a ten-game winning streak in the series for the Dragons (12-14, 7-6). Northeastern last defeated Drexel on January 31, 2008, also in Boston. The Huskies improved to 11-15, 5-8 on the season.

Fiona Flanagan matched her career high with 19 points to lead the Dragons. Tory Thierolf also tied her career high, putting up 16 points. Four of Drexel's five starters finished in double figures, with Abby Redick adding 12 and Meghan Creighton 10. Jewel Tunstull led all scorers with 22, adding 17 rebounds and two critical blocks in the second overtime.

The first half saw both teams get off to hot starts from the field. The two top three-point shooting teams in the Colonial Athletic Association, both teams traded early threes, with Drexel getting a trio before the first media timeout. The Dragons' starting five needed little assistance in the period, playing 94 of the 100 team minutes and scoring all 35 of the team's points as they led 35-29.

Drexel utilized a 17-2 run to turn a 5-5 tie into a 22-7 cushion before the Huskies crept back into the contest. Treys by Meghan Creighton, Fiona Flanagan and Rachel Pearson punctuated the run, with Tory Thierolf adding four points.

Northeastern put together a 9-0 burst of its own midway through the period, turning a 27-13 Drexel margin into a 27-22 edge. Abby Redick worked her way inside for a short jumper that ended the Huskies' barrage. Redick would score a team-high nine points in the first half. As a team, the 35 points scored in the first half marked the third-most prolific opening stanza of the season for the Dragons.

Though the offense did not keep up the fast pace of the first half after intermission, Drexel still maintained a relatively comfortable lead for much of the second half. After shooting 56.0 percent from the field in the first half, the Dragons were just 41.7 percent in the second, but still maintained a nine-point lead with 7:00 to play after Carrie Alexander hit a turnaround jumper to make it 54-45.

Aided by an A'lece Mark three-pointer, the Huskies netted the game's next eight points, slashing Drexel's lead to one. With 3:45 to play, Flanagan nailed a critical three-pointer, ending the drought and giving the Dragons a four-point cushion. Flanagan finished the day 5-of-6 from beyond the arc.

Drexel maintained a slight lead over the Huskies, holding onto a 61-56 edge with 2:15 to play. A three-pointer by Samantha DeFreese got Northeastern back within a bucket, and after two misses on the offensive end for the Dragons, Northeastern converted on a putback attempt to tie the score at 61. It was the first time the Huskies had pulled even since the 5-5 tie early in the first half.

Both teams had opportunities to take the lead or win the game in regulation, but neither could hit. The game went to overtime, with Northeastern pulling even but never taking a lead after its brief 2-0 advantage. Midway through overtime, that changed when the Huskies took a 65-63 lead with 2:46 to play on a Tunstull lay-in. They would push the lead out to three before Flanagan once again hit a clutch three-pointer, knotting things at 66 with 1:48 to go.

With 33 seconds to go, after a Meghan Creighton steal and score had given Drexel a two-point cushion 40 seconds earlier, Redick sunk a free throw to put the Dragons up by three. The Huskies, who came into the day trailing only Drexel in three-point proficiency in the CAA, had an answer on the other end as Kazzidy Stewart drained a three from the top of the key. Once again, both teams had opportunities to win, but neither could convert. After turning the ball over on the Drexel end, Creighton recorded an emphatic block of Amencie Mercier's last-second three-point attempt from the left corner, sending the game into double overtime.

The second overtime was seemingly all Northeastern, with Drexel going 0-for-9 from the floor. Still, the Dragons found themselves with a chance at the end. Free throws by Thierolf and Jackie Schluth left Drexel down just two, 75-73, with 20 seconds remaining. The latter two free throws, by Schluth, were set up when the redshirt-sophomore reserve made a clean steal of the Northeastern inbounds with the Dragons down four and the shot clock turned off.

After Schluth's free throws, the Dragons disrupted Northeastern's inbounds again. This time it was Thierolf credited with the steal after forcing a tie up. The Dragons could not come up with a tying score, though, and the Huskies got the ball loose behind the Dragons, sending Tunstull in for a game-clinching lay-in with just under four seconds to play. She added a free throw to give Northeastern its largest lead of the day, its final margin of five.

The Dragons will now need to win out in the regular season to ensure postseason eligibility heading into the CAA Tournament. Drexel needs to be a game over .500 to guarantee no worse than a .500 final record following the CAA Tournament, and currently sits two games under. The Dragons finish with two home games, beginning Thursday against UNCW, sandwiched around a visit to Hofstra next Sunday.