Women's Basketball Holds Off Delaware, 54-53

Friday, January 22

Newark, Del.

7:00 p.m.

Drexel University

4-28-9 | CAA

Delaware

4-29-8 | CAA

Drexel

Delaware

Photo by: Greg Carroccio

1/22/2016 9:04:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

NEWARK, Del. – The latest installment in the Drexel-Delaware women's basketball rivalry was not the prettiest, but the final score will look that way to the Dragons as they escaped the Bob Carpenter Center with a 54-53 victory. The Dragons saw a double-digit first-half lead evaporate by the end of the third quarter, and the game seesawed back and forth throughout the final period before an unusual six-point possession proved decisive for the Dragons.

Sarah Curran scored 21 points to lead the way for the Dragons (8-9, 4-2), including all six in a trip down the court with just under two minutes to play. She drained a three-pointer from the left wing, her fourth trey of the evening, then converted an and-one opportunity on the inbounds pass after an off-the-ball foul was called on the Blue Hens (9-8, 4-2) simultaneous with Curran's three-pointer. That put the Dragons up 54-50 with 1:47 to play, and though they did not score the rest of the way, their defense held strong as it had for most of the night.

Curran added six rebounds to her 21 points. Rachel Pearson added 10 points, while Meghan Creighton and Alexis Smith netted six apiece. Creighton added a team-high seven rebounds and four assists. Smith added a pair of steals.

The win marked the first time this year the Dragons have won consecutive games, following up their 74-31 victory over Elon. It also was their first victory this year when trailing in the second half, as Delaware came back to lead by as much as four early in the fourth quarter.

After a slow start on both sides, back-to-back three-pointers from Meghan Creighton and Rachel Pearson put the Dragons ahead 8-2 midway through the first quarter and prompted an early Delaware timeout. Though the Dragons' offense wasn't its crispest in the first quarter, their defense was. They held the Blue Hens to just two field goals on 12 attempts while forcing seven turnovers in the first quarter. Delaware was also 1-for-6 from the free throw line in the opening period as Drexel built a 14-5 lead.

The Dragons got an emotional lift to start the second quarter when sophomore Kelsi Lidge made her return to the court, two weeks after suffering a facial injury against Northeastern on Jan. 8. Lidge played 13 minutes in her return to action on Friday.

While the Dragons maintained their defensive intensity in the second quarter, the offense did not pick up. Drexel was hampered by early foul trouble as Jackie Schluth, Tereza Kracikova, Sarah Curran and Creighton each picked up two fouls in the first half. Curran knocked down a pair of three-pointers from nearly identical spots on the floor at the top of the key early in the second quarter, but Drexel hit two of its final 11 field goal attempts in the quarter and finished the first half 9-for-30. Still, the Dragons held Delaware to 6-of-27 shooting as Drexel took a 24-17 lead into the locker rooms at halftime.

Though the Blue Hens did not shoot it much better in the third quarter, foul trouble began to plague the Dragons even more with Kracikova, Schluth and Curran picking up their third personals. The Dragons led by nine with 7:26 to play in the period, 28-19, but would not score for the next 5:13 as the Blue Hens crawled to an 8-0 run during that span to pull within a point. Pearson hit the first of several big answering shots for the Dragons when she pushed the lead back to four with a three-pointer at the 2:13 mark. After Delaware took its first lead with 26 seconds to play in the third, Creighton answered with a step-back three-pointer, sending the Dragons into the fourth quarter with a two-point lead at 36-34.

The fourth quarter was tense throughout, with both teams building brief four point leads for the biggest margins of the period. It was Delaware leading by four, 45-41, with 5:32 to play, prompting a Drexel timeout. The lead had been five momentarily before a Blue Hens shot that was originally ruled a three-pointer was reviewed and changed to a two. Coming out of the timeout, Curran sank a three-pointer, then followed a defensive stop with a 15-foot jumper to get Drexel back on top by one.

Those two buckets signaled the beginning of Curran's takeover. With Alexis Smith chipping in a foul-line jumper at the 3:09 mark that turned a one-point deficit into a one-point lead, Curran scored 11 of the Dragons' final 13 points, including the six-point swing with just under two minutes to play. Delaware had the ball with 11 seconds to go trailing by one, but Pearson came up with a steal off an inbounds pass with 5 seconds remaining to seal the victory for Drexel.

As a result of the blizzard hitting the Mid-Atlantic over the next two days, the Dragons will have an extra day off before they visit Northeastern for their next outing. That game, originally scheduled for Sunday afternoon, has been moved to Monday evening at 7:00 p.m. in Boston.