Women's Basketball Comes Through Late for 67-64 Win Over First Place Hofstra

Friday, January 29

Daskalakis Athletic Center

7:00 p.m.

Drexel University

10-9, 6-2

Hofstra

15-4, 6-2

HOFSTRA

Drexel

Photo by: Greg Carroccio

Women's Basketball Comes Through Late for 67-64 Win Over First Place Hofstra

1/29/2016 9:45:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

PHILADELPHIA – The Drexel women's basketball team was no stranger to adversity over the season's first two months, but usually, it found itself unable to overcome. Drexel entered Colonial Athletic Association play with a 4-7 record, and games were usually decided early on. The Dragons rarely overcame a deficit, and had trailed for less than 10 total minutes in their four victories.

That pattern began to change last Friday when the Dragons netted their first win of the season when trailing during the second half with a one-point win at Delaware. On Monday, after traveling to Boston through Winter Storm Jonas, Drexel trailed most of the night but overcame a 12-point deficit, its largest comeback in over two years, to win at Northeastern.

The biggest win of the season thus far, however, came on Friday night at the Daskalakis Athletic Center. The Dragons took an early body blow from first-place Hofstra, which shot 76.9 percent from the field in the first quarter, but hung in there. Drexel did its best to match Hofstra shot for shot, and after edging ahead in the second half, held off a relentless Pride team to claim its fourth-straight victory, 67-64. Meghan Creighton scored 16 points to lead the Dragons (10-9, 6-2), adding eight assists against one turnover. Sarah Curran and Jackie Schluth each netted 13 points, and Jessica Pellechio notched 10 as the Dragons moved into a tie with the Pride (15-4, 6-2), just a half game behind James Madison for the CAA lead.

Schluth finished with eight rebounds to go along with her 13 points, a team high. Carrie Alexander chipped in six points and four rebounds, playing stifling defense in crunch time for a second-consecutive game. Sara Woods also contributed to the defensive effort, coming up with a pair of steals and scoring two points. Rachel Pearson finished with seven points, just missing giving the Dragons five scorers in double figures for the first time this season.

The Dragons withstood an early onslaught by Hofstra, as the Pride knocked down 10 of the 13 field goals it attempted in the first quarter (76.9 percent). Despite that, Hofstra led by just five after the first ten minutes thanks to five Dragons offensive rebounds resulting in four points. Jackie Schluth and Meghan Creighton got off to fast starts, scoring five and six points, respectively, in the first quarter as the Dragons hung tough, down 25-20 after the quarter.

Defense picked up for the Dragons in the second quarter, when they held Hofstra to 10 points on 4-of-12 shooting. After Hofstra opened the period with a three-pointer to make it 28-20, Drexel responded with an 11-3 run, fueled by five points from Jessica Pellechio. Pellechio stepped into a three-pointer from the top of the key with 3:13 to play before halftime that knotted the score at 31 apiece. She would finish with seven points in the first half. Creighton led all scorers in the opening half with 10 as the Dragons went into the break down by a bucket, 35-33.

After halftime, the Dragons' defense once again took things up a notch. Hofstra was just 1-for-10 from long range in the second half after going 7-for-12 in the first. The Pride was 9-for-23 from the field overall in the second half.

Hofstra led by seven, 42-35, when Creighton fed Curran for a lay-up that began a game-changing run. Pellechio followed with her second three-pointer, and suddenly the Dragons were back within two at 42-40. After Hofstra's Ashunae Durant knocked down a short jumper, Creighton responded with one of her own to start a 10-0 Drexel burst. Schluth, who was 6-for-7 from the floor, continued to prove lethal with her mid-range game. She swished consecutive jumpers from a step inside the arc, giving her 11 points and the Dragons its first lead since 13-12 midway through the first quarter. Rachel Pearson, who finished with seven points, worked her way inside and was fouled. She sank both free throws, as did Meghan Creighton on the next possession to give Drexel its largest lead of the night, 50-44.

The Dragons were aided by active rebounders on both ends of the court. Creighton's free throws followed after she grabbed an offensive rebound, one of 13 Drexel managed on the evening. That more than doubled Hofstra's total of six, and the Dragons netted 10 second-chance points to just five for the Pride. Hofstra had come in with a +4.7 rebounding margin, second in the CAA, but was outdone on the glass 31-29 overall by the Dragons on Friday.

Despite trailing by six, the Pride did not back down. They scored five straight to get the lead back down to one, and went into the fourth quarter trailing by three. That deficit was erased with the first points of the final quarter as Asia Jackson knocked down the Pride's lone trey of the second half.

The game seesawed back and forth with Drexel edging ahead and Hofstra crawling back to tie for several minutes. In all, the game was deadlocked nine times, the last coming at the 3:00 mark when Anjie White converted a three-point play to pull Hofstra even with the Dragons at 62. Carrie Alexander's free throw on the ensuing Drexel possession put the Dragons back ahead, but Darius Faulk drove down the floor and scored with 1:56 remaining to give Hofstra a one-point edge, 64-63.

That score held for over a minute, as Drexel could not score but forced a Hofstra turnover on the defensive end. Then, with 31 seconds to play, Curran took a feed from Schluth and went up and under to score, leaving the Draogns ahead by a point. The Dragons would stop Hofstra three more times in the final seconds, forcing a turnover and inducing a pair of badly-off-the-mark three-point attempts. Alexander, who grabbed her fourth rebound of the evening with eight seconds to play, provided the final margin with a free throw two ticks later.

The Dragons could have made things a little easier on themselves with a more typical night from the charity stripe. Drexel, which came in as the eighth-best free throw shooting team in the country at .769 on the year, was just 11-for-17 from the stripe, including a 3-for-9 showing in the fourth quarter. Nevertheless, the defense carried the day and helped Drexel fight through for the victory.

Drexel, which finds itself a game over .500 on the season for the first time since moving to 2-1 on Nov. 21, will have little time to enjoy this victory. The Dragons will host the rematch with Delaware on Sunday afternoon at 5:00 p.m. That game, which will cap off Homecoming Weekend at Drexel, will air live on Comcast SportsNet in Philadelphia and nationally via the American Sports Network, and worldwide on Sirius XM satellite radio (Sirius 93, XM 201). The Dragons will be searching a second-consecutive regular season sweep of the Blue Hens.