Women's Basketball Rebounds for 67-50 Win at William and Mary

Sunday, January 10

Williamsburg, Va.

2:00 p.m.

Drexel University

6-8 (2-1CAA)

William & Mary

11-3 (2-1CAA)

Drexel

William & Mary

Photo by: Greg Carroccio

Women's Basketball Rebounds for 67-50 Win at William and Mary

1/10/2016 4:06:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

WILLIAMSBURG, Va. – What a difference 48 hours makes. Just two days after seeing Northeastern dominate the glass and steal an overtime victory from them at the Daskalakis Athletic Center, the Drexel women's basketball team displayed an impressive focus on the boards as they pulled away for a 67-50 win at William & Mary on Sunday afternoon. The Dragons never trailed, and withstood a strong second-half push by the Tribe to put away the victory in their first road game of the Colonial Athletic Association season.

Sarah Curran led the way for the Dragons (6-8, 2-1), scoring a career-high 31 points. She provided several clutch buckets as the Tribe (11-3, 2-1) trimmed a 15-point Drexel halftime lead down to four, netting 19 of her points after halftime. Rachel Pearson added 13 points and now needs just six to become the 22nd player in Drexel women's basketball history to reach 1,000 career points.

As a team, the Dragons pulled down 45 rebounds, just two shy of their season high. They outrebounded the Tribe 45-26 overall, and 14-3 on the offensive glass after allowing 24 offensive rebounds to the Huskies on Friday. The Dragons moved the ball well, assisting on 21 of 25 made field goals including 10 assists without a turnover from Meghan Creighton. She came into the day with a 3.65 assist-to-turnover ratio, good for third in the nation, and improved that number to 4.09. Creighton also had nine rebounds, leading the team.

Jessica Pellechio added eight points and four rebounds, while Jackie Schluth had six points and three assists. Carrie Alexander added four points and four rebounds, while Alexis Smith chipped in two points and three boards. Pearson's seven rebounds marked a season best.

After being outrebounded 56-23 on Friday against Northeastern, including 24 offensive rebounds for the Huskies, the Dragons came out with a renewed focus on the boards on Sunday. Drexel was slow to heat up offensively, hitting just two of its first 10 shots, but controlled the glass from the start and did not let the Tribe get its offensive in sync, either. With the game tied 4-4, Jackie Schluth went inside for a lay-up that gave the Dragons a 6-4 edge and started a 15-5 run to end the first quarter. Drexel hit five of its six shots during the stretch, including three-pointers from Jessica Pellechio, Sarah Curran and Meghan Creighton.

The Dragons continued to keep the Tribe off balance in the second quarter. The lead grew as big as 15 when Creighton fed Rachel Pearson for a three-pointer from the left corner. Jackie Schluth also contributed four points in the quarter, making an impressive move at the top of the key to beat her defender and drive in for an easy bucket, then taking a nifty dish from Carrie Alexander for two. Alexander would hit a pair of free throws that helped Drexel maintain that 15-point lead at the break, 37-22.

Curran led the team with 12 points at intermission, doing nice work getting to the bucket in addition to her three-pointer. Pellechio added seven points. Schluth had six and Pearson added five, while Creighton contributed three points, five boards and four assists in the first half.

Coming out of the break, William & Mary wasted no time getting right back in the game. Marlena Tremba, the Tribe's leading scorer coming into the game, was held to just five points but scored three of those on a trey to open the second-half scoring. Abby Rendle, who led the team with 23 points, followed with a lay-up, followed by a pair of three-pointers from Jeanne Gaumont. Suddenly, the Dragons' 15-point lead had been trimmed to four, and just under three minutes had elapsed in the second half.

It was Curran who came to the rescue for the Dragons. She nailed a mid-range jumper to push the lead back to six, then after a Tribe free throw, worked inside for two to make it a seven-point game. Alexander would hit two more free throws to answer a Rendle lay-up, and after three straight Tribe points once again made it a four-point game, Curran stepped into a three-pointer from the right wing that stretched the lead back to seven. Pearson followed with a curl for two, and knocked down a jumper from the free throw line to help send Drexel into the fourth quarter up by eight, 50-42.

Curran set the tone for the fourth quarter when she nailed a three from the top of the key to make it 53-42. That was the start of a 9-0 Drexel run fueled entirely by Curran as the Dragons built a 17-point edge with 5:49 to play, putting the game largely out of reach for the Tribe. Curran scored 12 of Drexel's 17 points in the fourth quarter, culminated by her fourth three-pointer of the game to give her 31 points on the afternoon.

It was the first 30-point effort by a Dragon since Hollie Mershon dropped 32 on Harvard in the second game of Drexel's run to the 2013 WNIT championship on Mar. 23, 2013.

The Dragons have now won five straight in Williamsburg, dating back to Mar. 3, 2010.

Drexel will return to action on Friday, heading back to Virginia for a matchup with two-time defending CAA champion James Madison. That game will tip off at 7:00 p.m. at the JMU Convocation Center.