Women's Basketball Shuts Down Hofstra, 62-39

Friday, February 15

Daskalakis Athletic Center

7 p.m.

Drexel University

Hofstra

Drexel

2/15/2019 9:26:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

PHILADELPHIA – Using a familiar narrative, the Drexel women's basketball team finds themselves in unfamiliar territory as the Dragons defeated Hofstra on Friday evening at the Daskalakis Athletic Center 62-39. The win is the ninth in a row for Drexel (17-5, 9-2), a streak now tied as the third-longest in program history. The Dragons locked down defensively and seized control early in completing the season sweep of the Pride.

Bailey Greenberg led all scorers with 15 points despite seeing only limited action in the second half due to the Dragons' lead. She added seven rebounds and three steals in 24:14 of action. Keishana Washington finished with 10 points, all in the second half, for her first double-figure scoring effort since the Colonial Athletic Association opener against Towson.

Hannah Nihill set a career high with nine assists. She and Washington dominated the second half for Drexel, as Nihill dished out six of her helpers and scored all nine of her points after intermission. She also had three of her four steals in the second half. Niki Metzel also chipped in nine points, as did Ana Ferariu who was a perfect 5-for-5 from the free throw line in posting her highest point total of the season. Ferariu added four assists, two steals and a block. Kayla Bacon scored four and Aubree Brown, Tereza Kracikova and Kate Connolly netted two apiece to round out the scoring column for the Dragons. Brown added three assists and a pair of steals to her line.

After a slow start which saw the teams tied at five more than halfway through the first quarter, the Dragons took off. Drexel held the Pride scoreless over the final 4:55 of the period, going on an 11-0 run that stretched into the second as Drexel built a 16-5 lead. Greenberg scored eight of the 11, joined only by an old-fashioned three-point play by Ferariu. Over a longer period, the Dragons held Hofstra to just one field goal – a three-pointer that briefly knotted the game at 5-5 – over a 9:44 span.

In the second quarter, it was Metzel who did much of Drexel's damage. She knocked down a baseline jumper to make it a 20-11 game, and after the Pride responded with a three, Metzel rattled off five straight points to re-establish the Dragons as double-figure leaders. They went into the break up 27-16 with Greenberg and Metzel accounting for 22 of the 27. Ferariu's three and a lay-up by Kracikova were the only other points the Dragons put on the board in the opening 20 minutes.

Any doubt as to the game's outcome was erased quickly in the third quarter, when the backcourt of Washington and Nihill took over. The duo combined for 13 points, with Washington knocking down four of five attempts from the field, in the third quarter. Nihill added five assists and three steals to her five third-quarter points. Drexel opened the third on an 11-2 run and never looked back.

Hofstra would manage 17 fourth-quarter points, as many as the Pride had scored in the previous two periods combined, but their press could not force a single Dragons turnover and the Dragons' 8-for-10 showing from the line in the fourth quarter ensured there would be no miracle for the Pride on Friday night.

Drexel's win was the 299th in the career of head coach Denise Dillon, whose charges now set their sights on a pair of milestones looming on Sunday afternoon when Northeastern comes to town. A win over the Huskies would not only make Dillon the fourth coach in CAA history to win 300 games while coaching at a conference school, it would also give Drexel just the third winning streak of 10 or more games in the 37-year history of Drexel women's basketball. The Dragons and Huskies tip things off at 2 p.m. in a game that will be televised locally on NBC Sports Philadelphia.