Freshmen Finish Powers Women's Basketball Past Towson, 80-65

Friday, February 17

Towson, Md.

7:00 p.m.

Drexel University

19-6, 10-4CAA

Towson

11-14, 4-10CAA

Drexel

Towson

Photo by: Greg Carroccio

Freshmen Finish Powers Women's Basketball Past Towson, 80-65

2/17/2017 9:40:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

TOWSON, Md. – When the Drexel women's basketball team needs to finish a win off, the senior class has been there to get the job done all season long. On Friday night at Towson, however, the Dragons turned to their freshmen to fend off a pesky Towson Tigers team at SECU Arena in suburban Baltimore, 80-65. Freshmen Aubree Brown, Ana Ferariu and Bailey Greenberg combined to score 31 of the team's 44 second-half points as Drexel (19-6, 10-4) won for the 17th consecutive time in the series with the Tigers.

Though the freshmen starred down the stretch, senior Sarah Curran led all scorers with 19 points including 14 in the first half for her 13th consecutive game in double figures. Curran became the ninth player in program history to reach 1,500 career points, and finished the game with 1,509 for her illustrious career.

Brown set a new career high with 15 points including 11 after intermission. She added six rebounds and four assists, both team highs. Ferariu also scored 15, her third career game with at least that many points. Greenberg scored seven, all after halftime, to go along with five boards. Meghan Creighton chipped in 10 points, five rebounds and four assists without a turnover in 38 minutes of action.

All eight Dragons who saw time got on the scoreboard. Sara Woods, playing in front of family and friends, scored six with two rebounds, two assists and two steals in 23 minutes. Jessica Pellechio scored six with three boards, two assists and two steals of her own. Kelsi Lidge, making her first appearance since suffering a wrist injury at James Madison on Jan. 27, scored two with a rebound and an assist in 10 minutes.

Six different Dragons scored in a balanced first-quarter attack, but they could not create much separation with the Tigers as Drexel went into the second quarter up by just three, 15-12. None of those six scorers for the Dragons was leading scorer Sarah Curran, but that changed quickly in the second. Curran opened that period with an old-fashioned three-point play, and ultimately hit five of Drexel's six field goals in the quarter including a pair of threes.

Curran went into the break with 14 points, the only player on either side in double figures at halftime. Aside from her 5-for-6 showing from the floor in the second quarter, Drexel was just 1-for-5 as a team with four turnovers in the period.

Although their defense was not at its best early with Towson hitting four of six three-point attempts in the first half, it showed up in the half's closing minutes. The Tigers, who had pulled to within a point with 3:25 to play before intermission, went without a field goal the rest of the way and Curran and Jessica Pellechio – who converted an old-fashioned three-point play of her own off a sharp feed from Kelsi Lidge – pushed the Dragons' lead to seven at the break, 34-27.

Aubree Brown scored the team's first four points after halftime. After Curran made one of two free throws, she cut to the hoop and took a dish from Sara Woods for a bucket that gave the Dragons a 41-33 lead and prompted a Towson timeout.

The Dragons pushed their lead into double figures when Bailey Greenberg, who had just two points midway through the third quarter, got into the action on offense. She beat her defender to the hoop for two to make it a nine-point game at 46-37. The next time down the court, Curran found an open Greenberg in the right corner, and the freshman paid off the pass with a three-pointer to make it 49-37 with 2:49 remaining in the quarter.

The lead was 53-40 with less than a minute to play in the third when Towson began an 8-0 run that slashed Drexel's lead to five early in the fourth quarter. Woods ended the run with a pair of free throws, and after an Etalyia Vogt three-pointer for the Tigers got the lead down to four, Ana Ferariu responded with a triple, part of a personal 5-0 run for Ferariu that gave the Dragons some breathing room.

It was just the beginning for the Drexel freshmen. After a Towson trey made it a six-point game, Brown sank a pair of free throws, then knocked down her second three of the evening to push the lead back to 11, 65-54, with 3:49 remaining. The next two times down the court, the Dragons freed up Ferariu from long range for a pair of three-pointers, making it 71-58. On the ensuing inbounds, Brown stole the ball and left it for Creighton, who found Ferariu alone under the bucket.

Drexel hit seven of eight free throws down the stretch, including six straight in a sequence that included a Towson flagrant foul and a separate technical foul that led to four Creighton free throws.

The Dragons will look for a fifth straight victory when they return to the hardwood on Sunday afternoon against Delaware. That game, which tips at 3:00 p.m. at the Daskalakis Athletic Center, will air nationally on the American Sports Network and locally in Philadelphia on Comcast SportsNet.