Women's Basketball Falls Short in Upset Bid of Georgia in NCAA First Round, 67-53

Monday, March 22

San Antonio, Texas

12 p.m.

Drexel University

14-9,8-6CAA

Georgia

21-6,10-5SEC

Drexel

Georgia

Photo by: Rafael Suanes/CAA

Women's Basketball Falls Short in Upset Bid of Georgia in NCAA First Round, 67-53

3/22/2021 2:21:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

SAN ANTONIO, Texas – An unforgettable season came to a close on Monday afternoon as the 14th-seeded Drexel women's basketball team fell to No. 3 Georgia in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, 67-53. The undersized Dragons (14-9) led for most of the first half of the Alamo Region game and trailed by just five heading into the fourth quarter, but ran out of steam late after a week spent in the unique NCAA bubble set up in San Antonio.

HIGHLIGHTS
- Hannah Nihill finished with a game-high 22 points, going 10-for-22 from the floor with a pair of late threes to go along with three assists.
- The Dragons led by as many as nine points in the first quarter, going up 13-4 late in the period. Georgia made it a 15-10 game by the end of the first and, though its offensive woes continued in the second quarter, was able to knot the score up heading into halftime.
- Hetta Saatman scored eight points, adding seven rebounds, two blocks, and two steals in a career-best 35 minutes of action. Keishana Washington scored seven with five assists and two steals. Mariah Leonard scored six with a team-best eight boards, including six offensive rebounds. Kayla Bacon and Tori Hyduke scored four each, while Brianne Borcky added two. Kate Connolly grabbed three rebounds and had an assist and a steal.

GAME PLAY
1Q:
Both teams took a few minutes to get their legs under them after the extended break in the NCAA bubble. The Dragons and Lady Bulldogs were a combined 2-for-14 with five turnovers – all by Georgia – before back-to-back buckets from Hannah Nihill and Hetta Saatman pushed Drexel's lead out to 8-2 at the first media timeout. The stifling Drexel defense continued throughout the first quarter, forcing eight Lady Bulldog turnovers and holding them to just 10 points, matching their lowest opening-quarter output of the year. Drexel held a 15-10 first-quarter lead thanks to five points for Keishana Washington and four each from Nihill and Saatman.

2Q:
Georgia went on an extended 7-0 run that started in the waning seconds of the first quarter, but the Dragons' defense kept the Lady Bulldogs from fully asserting themselves. Drexel went without a field goal for 4:30 of game play before Brianne Borcky hit a putback with 5:53 to play in the second quarter, putting Drexel back in front 17-15. After a pair of Georgia three-pointers, Kayla Bacon cleaned up another offensive rebound to tie the score, and Tori Hyduke drained a long two-pointer from the corner, sinking her first field goal attempt since Feb. 28. Nihill led the team with eight points heading into intermission

3Q:
Another slow offensive start for Drexel saw Georgia take the lead, an edge that grew to as much as seven points late in the third quarter. The Lady Bulldogs began to find their rhythm offensively midway through the quarter and hit seven field goals in the third quarter, just two fewer than they knocked down in the entire first half. With Nihill on the bench after taking an inadvertent elbow to the face with 3:10 to play, the Dragons got contributions from Hyduke and Saatman to keep Drexel within range, and a Mariah Leonard jumper as the buzzer sounded gave Drexel a 40-35 hole to overcome with 10 minutes to play.

4Q:
An early 7-0 run by the Lady Bulldogs prompted a timeout by Amy Mallon with the Dragons trailing 49-37. Nihill answered with a short jumper to get the Dragons back within 10, but the Dragons could not string together consecutive scores without a Lady Bulldogs answer in the fourth quarter. Nihill went 4-for-8 from the floor in the fourth quarter and hit both of her three-point attempts, but no other Dragon scored more than two as the upset bid fell short.

BY THE NUMBERS
- Georgia led for just 2:12 in the opening half, while Drexel held the lead for 14:19.
- As a team, the Dragons were just 1-for-15 from beyond the arc before Nihill's two late threes, and finished 3-for-18.
- Nihill becomes the first Dragon ever to score 20 or more points in an NCAA Tournament game. Gabriela Marginean led the way for Drexel with 15 in their appearance in the 2009 tournament.
- Nihill now has 961 points in her collegiate career. Should she return next season, she would need just 39 points to become the 26th member of Drexel's 1,000-point club.