First Half Struggles Doom Dragons Saturday in 65-56 Loss to Elon

Saturday, February 18

Daskalakis Athletic Center

2:00

Drexel University

9-20 (3-13)

Elon

17-12 (9-7CAA)

Elon

Drexel

Photo by: Greg Carroccio

First Half Struggles Doom Dragons Saturday in 65-56 Loss to Elon

2/18/2017 3:45:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

BOX SCORE (PDF)

PHILADELPHIA -- The Drexel men's basketball team found itself in a first-half hole that it could not climb out of Saturday afternoon in its 65-56 loss to the Elon Phoenix at the Daskalakis Athletic Center. The Dragons fall to 9-20 (3-13 CAA) on the year, while Elon improves to 17-12 (9-7 CAA).

Drexel took an early 12-6 lead at the 13:38 mark thanks to a 12-0 run over a nearly four-minute span. Sammy Mojica scored five of his 15 points during the run. From that point on, however, Elon used a barrage of threes to close out the first half on a 26-6 run over more than 13 and a half minutes. Steven Santa Ana, Tyler Seibring and Dainan Swoope all hit at least two triples in the opening half to push the Phoenix lead to as many as 14 points. Swoope led all scorers with 21 points to go with a team-high eight rebounds. On the defensive end, Elon stifled the Dragons by keeping the ball out of the low post and forcing Drexel into jump shots. The Dragons shot 8-for-30 (26.7 percent) from the floor and 2-of-17 from deep in the first half, while Elon hit on 7-of-15 threes to take a 32-18 halftime lead.

The second half was a different story as the Dragons whittled the Elon lead down to 10 three minutes in. Drexel found energy in senior big man Mohamed Bah, who came off the bench to notch his first career double-double with a career-high 18 points and a dozen rebounds. Drexel played it mostly even in the second half until Seibring drilled a three with 3:13 to play to give Elon a 16-point cushion. He finished with 14 points on 4-of-5 shooting from deep. To their credit, the Dragons would not go away. Kurk Lee hit two threes in 63 seconds to cut the Elon lead to 60-50. The freshman, who again played his best down the stretch, finished with 16 points, seven rebounds and six assists. With 35 seconds to play, Lee found Bah underneath, and the big man from Mali completed the and-one to cut Elon's lead under 10 for the first time since the 6:44 mark of the first, 62-53. After Dmitri Thompson hit one of two from the line, Lee again knocked in a three to cut it to seven with 23 seconds left. That would be the closest the Dragons would get, however, as Elon closed it out from the free throw line for the 65-56 win.

The Dragons held Elon to 39.2 percent shooting from the field, including a 32 percent clip in the second half, but they shot just 34.9 percent themselves. Outside of the trio of Bah, Lee and Mojica, only Rodney Williams and John Moran would get into the scoring column for a total of seven points. The widest margin came at the free throw line. The Phoenix finished 14-for-27, while Drexel went 4-of-8.

Drexel will play its final home game of the season and honor its seniors Thursday night when it hosts James Madison.