Women's Basketball Rolls Past Northeastern in CAA Quarterfinals, 68-50

Thursday, March 9

Harrisonburg, Va.

7:30 p.m.

Drexel University

21-9

Northeastern

12-19

Northeastern

Drexel

Women's Basketball Rolls Past Northeastern in CAA Quarterfinals, 68-50

3/9/2017 10:16:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

HARRISONBURG, Va. – For the fifth time in the last six seasons, the Drexel women's basketball team will be a part of the Colonial Athletic Association semifinals after cruising to a 68-50 victory over Northeastern on Thursday night at the JMU Convocation Center. The Dragons used a 17-0 run early to take control and never looked back as they improved to 21-9 overall on the season.

Meghan Creighton scored 18 points on 6-of-10 three-point shooting to lead the attack for the Dragons. She also had five assists and a pair of steals in the win. Sarah Curran scored 17 with nine rebounds, while Sara Woods scored a career-high 12 points on 6-of-7 shooting from the floor. Woods did her damage in a personal-best 30 minutes of action. Jessica Pellechio also scored 10 points, adding three rebounds and three assists.

Creighton came out of the gates on fire, draining her first three attempts from beyond the arc to put Drexel ahead 9-7 early. The last of those early threes for Creighton was the 265 th of the season for the Dragons, establishing a new program and CAA record. By the end of the night, Drexel's total stood at 272 after its 13th game of the season with double-figure treys.

After Northeastern scored five straight to take a brief 12-7 lead, the Dragons rattled off the next 17 points. Curran contributed eight points during the run and Woods scoring her first six of the night. Drexel led 23-12 at the end of the first quarter, and added three more to open the second and cap the 17-0 run.

Aubree Brown, who came off the bench after seeing significant time in the starting lineup down the stretch in Kelsi Lidge's absence, buried a three-pointer from the corner early in the second quarter, then followed that with a drive to the hoop. Those five points would be her total for the evening, going along with two assists and two steals.

Drexel dropped its final three games of the regular season in large part because the Dragons' defense, which has been its backbone for the last several years, found itself unable to get stops when it needed. That was not the case on Thursday against the Huskies. The Dragons held Northeastern off the scoreboard for the last 6:01 of the first quarter, and allowed them just 15 total points in the second and third. Drexel also did its job on the glass, outrebounding the Huskies 32-30 on the night with Curran's nine boards leading the way.

Another double-digit scoring run, this one an 11-0 run spanning the end of the second and start of the third quarters, pushed Drexel's lead above 20 for the first time. The Dragons would let up just six Northeastern points in the third quarter while Creighton matched that total by herself with another pair of three-pointers. By the end of the quarter, Drexel held a 52-27 edge.

Northeastern made a last-ditch push early in the fourth quarter as the Huskies scored 10 straight to open the period and force a Drexel timeout with 6:33 to play. The Dragons responded, though, with Curran driving inside for an old-fashioned three-point play on the ensuing possession. Bailey Greenberg followed that up with a steal, and raced down to get the lead back to 20 with 5:41 remaining.

Drexel will be back in the semifinals on Friday night at 7:00 p.m. as the Dragons take on the second-seeded host school, James Madison. Drexel, which won the CAA Tournament by beating the Dukes on their home court in 2009 after ending Old Dominion's 17-year run of dominance in the semifinals, will be looking to snap a 10-game winning streak for three-time defending champion James Madison in the CAA Tournament when the teams face off on Friday.