Dragons Climb Mountain But Drop Heartbreaker To Charleston

Sunday, February 6

Philadelphia, Pa.

1:00 P.M.

Drexel University

College of Charleston

Photo by: Sideline Photos

Dragons Climb Mountain But Drop Heartbreaker To Charleston

2/6/2022 2:53:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

PHILADELPHIA - Trailing by 24 with less than three minutes left in the third quarter, the Drexel women's basketball team came all the way back to tie the score, but fell 74-73 to the Charleston Cougars on Sunday afternoon.

BY THE NUMBERS

Tessa Brugler led all scorers with a career-high 28 points and pulled in 12 rebounds for her 10th double-double of the year. She scored 25 of her points in the second half including 18 in the fourth quarter alone.
Keishana Washington posted 20 in the game, continuing her string of reaching double figures in every game this season.
Hannah Nihill added 14 points, with five assists and a season-high five steals.
Drexel shot 54.1 percent in the second half, hitting 15 of its final 26 shots.
DU posted 23 points off 17 Charleston turnovers.

HOW IT HAPPENED

Trailing 55-31 with 2:18 remaining in the third, Drexel showed some life to end the frame as a three by Maura Hendrixson, a jumper by Nihill, and a pair of layups from Brugler trimmed the lead to 59-41 at the end of the frame.
With momentum on their side, the Dragons used the combination of Brugler and Washington to start the fourth as the duo scored all the DU points in a 15-6 run that took just 4:24 and was capped by an old-fashioned three-point play from Brugler, slicing the deficit to 65-56.
The opening of the fourth set up a wild finish as in a span of 3:17, Drexel outscored Charleston 10-1, tying the game at 66-66 with 1:23 left.
The Cougars went back up 70-66, but the Dragons did not go away as a Brugler layup cut the lead back to two with 15 seconds remaining. Charleston made all four of its free throws in the waning seconds escape with the win.
Despite some scoring the first five minutes of the game were choppy with the teams combining for four turnovers as the Dragons held a 10-7 lead at the 4:45 mark. Drexel went cold for the rest of the period, however, as the Cougars took a 19-13 advantage at the end of the first.
The shooting slump continued into the second quarter as Drexel connected on just one of its first 12 shots, as Charleston built a 34-15 lead. The Dragons started to find their footing as a frantic sequence that saw three offensive rebounds for DU lead to a trey from Washington to break the string. A steal and score provided another spark before CofC scored the final points of the frame.
The Dragons shooting pace picked up in the second half, but the Cougars maintained the tempo as the teams exchanged baskets for the first eight minutes of the third quarter.

UP NEXT
The Dragons make their northeastern swing, starting with Hofstra on Friday, February 11. Tipoff from the Mack Sports and Exhibition Complex is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.