Women's Basketball Cruises for Dillon's 300th Win

Sunday, February 17

Daskalakis Athletic Center

2 p.m.

Drexel University

Northeastern

Drexel

Photo by: Greg Carroccio/Sideline Photos

Women's Basketball Cruises for Dillon's 300th Win

2/17/2019 4:51:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

PHILADELPHIA – With just three weekends of regular season action remaining, the Drexel women's basketball team made a statement on Sunday afternoon and made some history in the process, defeating Northeastern in a romp at the Daskalakis Athletic Center, 76-45. The win was the Dragons' 10th in a row and the 300th in the head coaching career of Denise Dillon, who became just the fourth coach in Colonial Athletic Association history to reach that milestone at a league school.

The Dragons (18-5, 10-2) led wire-to-wire, jumping all over the Huskies from the start in completing the season sweep. Drexel had its largest first-quarter and halftime leads of the year, and the 31-point margin of victory also was the Dragons' biggest this season. It was the first time Drexel has won a game by more than 30 points since a 71-38 victory at UNCW on Jan. 13, 2017.

Dillon joins Wendy Larry (493 at Old Dominion), Kenny Brooks (337 at James Madison) and Tina Martin (330 at Delaware) as the only head coaches to win 300 games as a head coach in the CAA. She also now has 197 victories in CAA play, including regular season and postseason, and would join that trio as the only coaches with at least 200 league wins with three more. She already stands as the winningest head coach in Drexel basketball history, and has assured herself of a winning season for the 11th time in the last 12 years.

Drexel's 10-game winning streak now stands alone as the third-longest in program history. The Dragons have a pair of 16-game streaks to their credit, one during the 1989-90 campaign and another during the team's CAA championship season of 2008-09.

A balanced scoring attack for the Dragons was led by Bailey Greenberg, whose 17 points left her as the leading scorer for the 20th time in 23 games this season. She shot 8-for-13 from the floor, adding six rebounds and four assists. Keishana Washington had perhaps the best game of her young career, as the freshman went 7-for-11 for a career high 16 points and three helpers. Niki Metzel finished with 14 points, also going 7-for-11 from the floor, while Hannah Nihill added 13 on 5-of-8 shooting. She also dished out five assists and had three steals.

Aubree Brown came up just short of putting the Dragons' entire starting lineup into double figures, but nevertheless keyed the offense with eight assists to go along with her eight points and five rebounds. She turned the ball over just twice and came up with three steals of her own as Northeastern was forced into 24 turnovers on the afternoon, the most by a Drexel opponent this season. Ana Ferariu and Kate Connolly added three points apiece, while Mariah Leonard chipped in two to round out the scoring column.

Drexel almost entirely shut down the high-flying Northeastern offense in the first quarter, setting the tone for the afternoon. After the Huskies knotted the game at 2-2 with 8:11 still to go in the first, Drexel rattled off 16 consecutive points, holding Northeastern off the scoreboard for 7:23 of game action. In fact, the Dragons would not let Northeastern make a two-point field goal for 15:38, from the 8:11 mark of the first quarter until just 2:33 was left before halftime.

Greenberg, as usual, set the tone for the Dragons offensively, going 5-for-7 from the floor for 11 points in the opening quarter. With time winding down in the period, Nihill got a steal and sent it to Brown, who fed Greenberg down low for a leaner as time expired, putting Drexel up 22-5 after a frenetic 10 minutes.

Washington took over in the second, when she did not miss a shot in putting up seven points to help build a 39-14 halftime cushion. In fact, the freshman made her first five attempts from the floor, leaving her with 11 points by the break.

Northeastern found its footing in the third quarter, but the Dragons showed no signs of letting up on the offensive end. They shot 10-for-17 in the third. Metzel did damage in the paint, going 4-for-4 for eight points in the quarter as Drexel managed to extend its lead despite a 20-point quarter for the Huskies.

In all, the Dragons shot a season-best 57.6 percent (34-for-59) from the floor on Sunday afternoon. They held the Huskies nearly 25 points below their season average offensively, and shut down Northeastern's leading scorer Jess Genco, who finished with just two points from the free throw line on an 0-for-3 shooting afternoon. Shannon Todd led the team with 14 points, but it was far too little to stop the Dragons from netting the history-making victory.

Drexel will get back in action next Friday when the Dragons put their 10-game winning streak and 12-game road winning streak on the line at UNCW. The Seahawks come into Friday's game sporting a perfect 12-0 record at home. Drexel has not lost in Wilmington since Jan. 2, 2011, and has won 14 in a row overall against UNCW. Friday's game tips off at 7 p.m.