Balanced Effort Leads Women’s Basketball Past Hofstra on Sunday

Sunday, January 22

Daskalakis Athletic Center

2:00 p.m.

Drexel University

14-4, 5-2

Hofstra

8-9, 1-5

Hofstra

Drexel

Photo by: Greg Carroccio

Balanced Effort Leads Women’s Basketball Past Hofstra on Sunday

1/22/2017 3:56:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

PHILADELPHIA – For just the second time in program history, the Drexel women's basketball team sits at 14-4 through its first 18 games as the Dragons handled Hofstra at the Daskalakis Athletic Center on Sunday afternoon, 65-43. Drexel led nearly the entire game and created havoc on the defensive end, coming up with a season-best 16 steals in the win.

Sarah Curran scored 17 points to lead the Dragons, adding seven rebounds. Bailey Greenberg scored 12, her first game in double figures since netting a career-high 13 in the CAA opener against Towson on Jan. 2. Meghan Creighton chipped in 11 points and four assists. Kelsi Lidge put together a career-high six steals to go along with five rebounds and three assists.

For a second-consecutive game Drexel got substantial production from its bench, particularly in the low post. Sara Woods, who matched a career high with eight points in Friday's win over the College of Charleston, set a new personal best with nine points on 4-of-6 shooting against the Pride. Tereza Kracikova scored seven – matching a career best which she also last set on Friday night. Aubree Brown scored four points, adding three assists and two steals, and Ana Ferariu chipped in four points from the free throw line to go along with a pair of steals herself.

As a team, the Dragons forced 23 Hofstra turnovers and committed just eight themselves. Drexel scored 22 points off the giveaways by the Pride.

Sarah Curran was Drexel's lone double-figure scorer on Friday night and led the team with just 10 herself. It did not take her long to match that total, as she had 10 before the end of the first quarter against Hofstra. Aubree Brown capped the team's scoring in the first quarter with a steal and a breakaway lay-up, converting the three-point play opportunity after she drew a foul. Drexel led 16-10 at the end of the first.

Krystal Luciano, who would end up leading all scorers with 19 points, opened the second quarter with a three-pointer for the Pride which cut the Drexel lead in half. However, the Dragons rattled off the next seven points to build their first 10-point edge of the game. Bailey Greenberg accounted for two of those seven, and after Hofstra got a bucket, Greenberg would score again to make it a 25-15 game and force Hofstra to use its second early timeout. Luciano scored nine for Hofstra in the second quarter, but her teammates provided just two more points to allow the Dragons to take a 35-21 cushion into intermission.

Drexel's lead never slipped under 13 in the second half. Though both teams saw offensive struggles in the third quarter, Sara Woods chipped in five points in four minutes off the bench to keep the Dragons comfortably in front. Starting the fourth quarter, Meghan Creighton drained her second of three treys and Woods followed with a lay-up that made it 51-33 and prompted another Hofstra timeout. The Dragons would push their quarter-opening run to 10, fueled in part by another Creighton triple, and ultimately turned it into a 14-2 run that provided their largest margin of the afternoon, 60-35.

The Dragons now boast a 14-4 record overall this season, the first time they have won 14 of the first 18 since the 1986-87 season. The Dragons have never improved to 15-4 overall before.

They will have a chance to do that for the first time on Friday night when they get back on the road and visit James Madison. Drexel and the Dukes are both 5-2 in Colonial Athletic Association play, tied for second place just one game behind first-place Elon. The Dragons' first visit to Harrisonburg – which will play host to the CAA Tournament in March – will tip off Friday at 7:00 p.m.