Dragons Edged by Northeastern in Overtime, 75-70

Monday, January 2

Daskalakis Athletic Center

4:30

Drexel University

6-9 (0-2)

Northeastern

9-5, 2-0

OT 1

Northeastern

Drexel

Photo by: Greg Carroccio

Dragons Edged by Northeastern in Overtime, 75-70

1/2/2017 6:33:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

BOX SCORE (PDF)

PHILADELPHIA -- The Drexel men's basketball team fell Monday, 75-70, in overtime to the Northeastern Huskies in its Colonial Athletic Association home opener at the Daskalakis Athletic Center.

After a back-and-forth final eight minutes of regulation, Drexel (6-9, 0-2 CAA) found itself with a three-point lead after floaters from Kurk Lee on back-to-back possessions with 1:24 to go. The Dragons would then steal the ensuing inbounds pass but came up empty on the possession. With Drexel up 61-58, T.J. Williams, who finished with a game-high 24 points, found freshman Bolden Brace in the corner for the three to tie it at 61 apiece with 33.1 seconds to play. Both teams would miss their final attempts to send the game to overtime.

In overtime, Northeastern (9-5, 2-0 CAA) struck first, scoring the first five points of the extra period, highlighted by a huge two-handed Alex Murphy slam. Murphy finished with 20 points and nine rebounds on the night. The Huskies would push their overtime lead to as many as six, but the Dragons held tough, cutting the deficit to one on a Rodney Williams spin move in the lane with 1:16 to play. Williams finished with his seventh 20-point game of his senior campaign to go along with nine rebounds. After another Murphy slam, Miles Overton then cut the deficit back to one with a tough layup of his own with 28 seconds left to make it 71-70. Brace, who finished with nine points, went 4-for-4 from the line over the final 16 seconds to seal the 75-70 road win for the Huskies. It was the Dragons' first overtime game since Dec. 22, 2015 when they beat Penn at the DAC.

Following a 26-25 halftime lead for the Dragons, the game teetered back and forth with neither side going ahead by more than five until Sammy Mojica found Williams in the paint for lay-in to make it a six-point Drexel lead with 13:28 left. Mojica finished with 11 points, eight assists and five rebounds. That bucket for Williams gave Drexel two of its 50 points in the paint on the night. The Dragons would push the lead to as many as nine on a Mojica layup and free throw with 12:39 to go. Northeastern would go on an 8-1 burst before eventually tying the game at 50-50 just ahead of the under-eight media timeout.

In the first half, Northeastern built a lead out to as many as 10 points about 14 minutes into the game with a 9-0 run. Drexel countered with an 8-0 push of its own to keep the game from getting out of reach. The Dragons held Northeastern to three points over the final 6:19 of the first half, and finished the half on a 14-3 run to take a slim 26-25 lead into the locker room.

Drexel finished with four players in double figures. In addition to Williams and Mojica, Zach Spiker's squad also got 13 points from Overton and 11 points from Austin Williams, who also grabbed five rebounds before fouling out at the 2:19 mark of the second half. Northeastern got 44 points combined from Williams and Murphy, but no other player was in double figures. Devon Begley hit three triples for nine points. Max Boursiquot finished with 13 rebounds, as the two teams finished tied on the glass with 37 each. Drexel shot 31-of-71 (44.3 percent) from the floor, while Northeastern shot 24-of-55 (43.6 percent). The difference came from deep and from the line. The Huskies hit nine threes to Drexel's three, while they would also go 18-for-21 from the charity stripe to Drexel' 5-for-10 mark.

Drexel will return to the DAC on Thursday night when it hosts UNCW (13-2, 2-0 CAA) at 7 p.m.