Women's Basketball Guts Out 66-60 Win Over UNCW

Sunday, February 14

Daskalakis Athletic Center

1:00 p.m.

Drexel University

13-11, 9-4

UNCW

7-17, 3-10

UNCW

Drexel

Photo by: Greg Carroccio

Women's Basketball Guts Out 66-60 Win Over UNCW

2/14/2016 3:44:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

PHILADELPHIA – It was not always pretty, but the Drexel women's basketball team will take the victory. The Dragons led nearly the entire game but saw a 15-point lead whittled down to one in the fourth quarter against UNCW as Drexel managed to pull away for a 66-60 win, snapping a brief two-game losing skid.

Jessica Pellechio led the Dragons with 14 points, matching her largest output during Colonial Athletic Association play. Kelsi Lidge scored a career-high 12 points, while Sarah Curran added 13 and Alexis Smith chipped in nine. Meghan Creighton handed out eight assists while scoring six herself. Carrie Alexander added eight points, a season-high.

Both teams were slow to get started in the first quarter, with the teams going more than three minutes scoreless before UNCW's Madison Raque hit the game's first field goal. The Seahawks' lead – their only one of the afternoon – would be short lived as Meghan Creighton took a feed from Jackie Schluth and knocked down a three-pointer just 19 seconds later to put Drexel on top, 3-2.

Creighton's three-ball snapped the Dragons out of their funk, as they would score 19 points in the first quarter to take a 19-14 lead into the break. Sarah Curran had nine during the opening period, hitting four of six from the field including a three-pointer. Kelsi Lidge also hit a three-pointer, part of a five-point output by her in the first quarter.

Though the second quarter scoring was more balanced from the Dragons, the offensive production showed little sign of slowing. Alexis Smith scored six and Drexel led by as many as 11 in the second quarter, a margin the Dragons took into halftime after Carrie Alexander drove the length of the floor and banked in a lay-up at the buzzer to make it a 37-26 Drexel lead.

The Dragons played a strong all-around game in the first half, outrebounding the Seahawks 19-11 while dishing out 12 assists on 16 made field goals. Creighton had five of those assists without a turnover as the team gave the ball away just five times in the opening 20 minutes. Drexel shot 48.5 percent from the floor (16-for-33), and hit five three-pointers two days after knocking down just three in the entire game against James Madison.

After the break, the Dragons quickly built the lead to 15, 45-30, less than two mintues into the third quarter. Creighton and Jessica Pellechio both buried three-pointers to get the second-half scoring underway for Drexel, and Curran hit a short jumper to cap the 15-point edge and prompt a UNCW timeout.

The timeout called by the Seahawks seemed to slow Drexel's offensive rhythm. They would go without a point for nearly five minutes until Pellechio knocked down a pair of free throws at the 3:23 mark. During that drought, UNCW inched closer but could not tighten the gap entirely. The Seahawks scored nine straight over 4:41, slashing Drexel's lead to 45-39 before Pellechio's free throws. The junior from Lebanon, N.J. came up big after a defensive stop, sinking a three-pointer that got Drexel's lead back to double digits at 50-39.

The Dragons were ahead by 13 early in the fourth quarter when UNCW began its final charge, one that almost cost Drexel its victory. Trailing 54-41 after a Pellechio jumper, UNCW embarked on a 9-1 run to make it a five-point game with ample time, 6:26, left on the fourth quarter clock. Kelsi Lidge's bucket on Drexel's next possession stemmed the tide and Alexis Smith made it an eight-point game with a three-pointer from the wing with 3:37 to play, but suddenly the Seahawks rattled off seven straight points. Jasmine Steele nailed a three-pointer, followed by lay-ups from Shatia Cole and Madison Raque. Drexel's lead was just one, 60-59, with 1:49 remaining.

After a Dragons timeout, Pellechio found Jackie Schluth for a mid-range jumper to give Drexel a bit of breathing room at 62-59. The teams traded empty possessions before Steele was fouled going for a loose ball after an errant Drexel shot. She hit one of two free throws to make it a two-point game with 35 seconds remaining, but Curran did her one better by sinking a pair four seconds later, giving Drexel a two-possession lead.

On the other end, Lidge disrupted the Seahawks' passing lanes and came up with a big steal to give the Dragons possession with 20 ticks remaining. She hit her free throws to push the lead out to six, and Sara Woods came up with a final steal to keep UNCW off the scoreboard and the Dragons in the win column.

Drexel will conclude its three-game homestand on Friday evening when it hosts Towson. The Dragons and Tigers have not met yet this season, and will play twice in the year's final three weeks. Drexel, which moved back into a tie for second place in the CAA with Sunday's win and extended a winning streak against UNCW to nine games dating back to 2010, will be in search of its 13th consecutive victory over the Tigers when the teams meet at 7:00 p.m.