Women’s Basketball Drops Close City Affair at Penn

Friday, December 20

Philadelphia, Pa.

11:30 a.m.

Drexel University

6-5,0-0CAA

Penn

8-1,0-0Ivy League

Drexel

Penn

Women’s Basketball Drops Close City Affair at Penn

12/20/2019 1:41:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

PHILADELPHIA – The Drexel University women's basketball team (6-5) dropped a city nonconference affair to the University of Pennsylvania Quakers (8-1) by a final of 53-49 on Friday afternoon from The Palestra in Philadelphia, Pa.

HIGHLIGHTS
* Senior Bailey Greenberg led the Dragons with 13 points on 6-of-14 shooting. She also grabbed eight boards and dished out three assists, both tying for team highs.
* Sophomore Kate Connolly had her second-straight strong game, putting up nine points with eight boards along with three assists. Five of her rebounds came on the offensive end.
* Sophomore Keishana Washington scored nine with four rebounds.
* Senior Mariah Leonard finished with eight points including six in the fourth quarter.
* Penn had four players in double figures including a game-high 17 from Kayla Padilla.
* A 17-2 run saw Drexel call three timeouts in the third quarter alone as the Quakers went up by 11 before the Dragons cut it down to five heading into the fourth quarter.
* After being overtaken by Penn in the third, Drexel never regained the lead.

GAMEPLAY
Q1 /
Back-to-back threes from Bailey Greenberg and Penn's Kayla Padilla evened the score at 9-9 early. Metzel made her second shot off the bench to give the Dragons their first lead at 11-9 to force a Quaker timeout at 2:12. From there, Connolly stretched it to a five-point lead at 14-9 before Nihill's free throws and Greenberg's putback capped the 9-0 run to double up Penn after the opening quarter, 18-9. The Dragons were able to force nine Penn turnovers in the first 10 minutes of action.

Q2 /
Points were at the premium for Drexel and Penn in the second quarter with the Quakers outscoring the Dragons, 9-4. Washington sank the first shot for the Dragons with 4:13 remaining in the second frame. A steal from Hendrixson led to the sophomore making her first non-three-point field goal of the season on a fastbreak layup to put Drexel back up by nine, 22-13, into another Penn timeout with 3:48 left in the half. The Quakers then closed the period with a pair of free throws and a trey from Padilla to make it 22-18 in favor of the Dragons at the break.

Q3 /
After Drexel held Penn to just nine points in each the first and second quarters, Penn found a bit more of a rhythm in the third to take the lead for the first time. The Quakers capitalized with a 17-2 run as Drexel called three third-quarter timeouts to try and halt the spurt. The last timeout came with 2:57 to play as Penn held an 11-point advantage, 39-28. Connolly hit two three-pointers out of the timeout to give the Dragons some life. Drexel was able to close the gap heading into the fourth with the score Penn 41-36.

Q4 /
With Drexel back in the game, the Dragons cut the deficit down to two with two more layups from Greenberg, a short jumper from Leonard and a three-pointer from Washington at 47-45 with 6:02 remaining. The final media timeout came with Penn leading by four, 49-45, with 4:38 to play. Leonard made two baskets down the stretch to get the Dragons within two at 49-47 and 51-49. DU was never able to catch up with a scoring drought over the final 2:32 as Penn eventually won by four, 53-49.

BY THE NUMBERS
* Drexel shot 31.3% (20-of-64) from the field, 21.7% (5-of-23) from three-point range and 80.0% (4-of-5) from the free-throw line.
* The loss makes the Dragons 3-1 against city opponents on the year with wins over La Salle, Saint Joseph's and Villanova before falling to the Penn Quakers.
* Drexel won the battle of the boards, 36-34, with Greenberg and Connolly each grabbing eight.
* Both team hits 20 shots with Drexel taking 64 attempts to Penn's 45.
* Nearly half (24) of Drexel's 49 points came off the bench.
* Drexel caused 22 Penn turnovers and outscored the Quakers 25-14 on miscues.

NEXT UP
The Dragons have some time off before hosting the University of Maine Black Bears for the team's nonconference finale on Monday, Dec. 30 at 4:30 p.m. from the Daskalakis Athletic Center. The game is part of a doubleheader with the Drexel men's basketball team opening conference play with UNCW at 7 p.m.