Pearson Nets 1000th in Largest Conference Win in Women's Basketball History

Sunday, January 17

Daskalakis Athletic Center

2:00 p.m.

Drexel University

7-9, 3-2

Elon

9-7, 2-3

Elon

Drexel

Photo by: Greg Carroccio

Pearson Nets 1000th in Largest Conference Win in Women's Basketball History

1/17/2016 4:08:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

PHILADELPHIA – A game that started with a celebration of Drexel senior Rachel Pearson's 1,000th career point ended with one of the most lopsided scores in Drexel women's basketball history as the Dragons raced past Elon at the Daskalakis Athletic Center on Sunday afternoon, 74-31. The 43-point margin was the largest in any Drexel conference win in the 34-year Division I history of the Dragons, and the fourth-largest in any game during that time.

Rachel Pearson scored 14 points as she became the 22nd member of the Drexel 1,000 point club. She came into the game with 998 career points and scored on the first play of the game, moving into 19th place by game's end with her 1,012 total points. Sarah Curran led all scorers with 22, adding seven rebounds and matching a career high with six assists. Jessica Pellechio also netted 14 points on 5-of-7 shooting, including 4-of-6 from long range. She added three steals. Meghan Crieghton had seven assists to go along with three points and four rebounds, and Sara Woods scored a career-best eight points to help Drexel reach the 70-point plateau for the first time this season.

Though the Dragons' offense was impressive, hitting at a 50.0 percent clip on the afternoon (28-for-56), it was their defense that provided such a noteworthy margin. Drexel (7-9, 3-2) came up with eight steals and four blocks – three from freshman Tereza Kracikova – and disrupted Elon's passing lanes throughout the game. The Phoenix (9-7, 2-3) was just 13-for-58 from the floor (22.4 percent) and 3-for-18 from long range (16.7 percent), and scored just 12 points after halftime. Shay Burnett and Essence Baucom had seven points each to lead Elon. Drexel's 31 points allowed was just one off the program record of 30, set on Jan. 6, 2008 in a 56-30 win over Hofstra.

Any drama built up in waiting for Pearson's milestone point was done away with quickly, as the senior from West Chester worked inside and banked in a lay-up for the game's first points and her 999th and 1,000th career points. Pearson became the first Dragon to reach that milestone since Taylor Wootton did it in the 2013 WNIT Championship Game against Utah.

By the end of the half, Pearson had moved from 23rd to 19th on the Dragons' all-time scoring list with nine points in the game and 1,007 in her career, passing Gina Miniscalco, Wootton and Steph Frysinger. Meanwhile, the Dragons had backed her up. Her Archbishop Carroll teammate Sarah Curran was 7-for-10 from the floor in the opening half, netting 18 points and dishing out three assists. Pearson's other longtime teammate, Meghan Creighton, had five assists in the half including a helper on Pearson's historic bucket. Jessica Pellechio hit a pair of early three-pointers and came up with two steals, and Jackie Schluth added two points, three assists and a block.

Tereza Kracikova helped fuel the Dragons' interior defense with a pair of blocks. She used her length to alter a number of Elon shots, as the Phoenix was 8-for-33 (24.2 percent) from the floor in the half. Drexel, meanwhile, was 14-for-25 (56.0 percent) and never trailed as they built as much as a 21-point lead and took a 38-19 margin into intermission.

That lead would only grow after the break. After a Burnett free throw made it an 18-point game, Pearson started a 9-0 Drexel run with a three-pointer from the left wing off a feed from Curran, who promptly rebounded an Elon miss and knocked down a jumper of her own. After a Pearson lay-up made it a 25-point lead, Jackie Schluth netted two of her six points to push the lead to 47-20 with 5:18 remaining in the third quarter. Another Schluth jumper made it a 28-point game two minutes later, and the Dragons went into the fourth quarter comfortably ahead, 52-25.

The fourth quarter belonged to Pellechio, Woods and the Drexel defense. Pellechio hit all three of her field goals in the quarter, netting eight points with three rebounds and a steal. Woods, who had not played over the game's first 30 minutes, asserted herself in the closing period. She was 3-for-5 from the floor and had four rebounds. Her eight points doubled her previous career high, and she added a steal and an assist while playing the full 10 minutes of the fourth quarter.

While that duo was taking care of business on the offensive end, Drexel closed strong defensively. They forced a pair of Elon turnovers and Kracikova in particular continued to force off-balanced, hurried shots by the Phoenix who were just 3-for-13 in the quarter. Elon scored six points in the fourth quarter, as it had in the third, as the Dragons tacked on 16 points to its final margin of victory.

The 43-point win was not only the fourth-largest ever for the Dragons and the largest conference win by the team, it was also the biggest margin since defeating Philadelphia Textile 95-43 on Dec. 8, 1986. That game's 52-point margin of victory set a Division I program record which has stood for over 29 years. Drexel's two other wins larger than Sunday's were both against non-conference foe Coppin State, on Nov. 23, 1985 (94-48) and Nov. 29, 1986 (103-56).

The Dragons are now 3-0 in their short history with Elon, but they will have their oldest and fiercest rival waiting for them in their next outing. Drexel will head to Delaware on Friday night for a 7:00 p.m. matchup at the Bob Carpenter Center, the 74th meeting in the programs' Division I histories. Delaware, which won on Sunday against Towson, will come into that battle one game ahead of Drexel in the CAA standings and tied with Hofstra and James Madison for first place in the league.