The Guru Report: Drexel Romps Making La Salle Third Straight Philly Six Victim

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

PHILADELPHIA – The Drexel women are winning against their city neighbors in all kind of variety sizes this season.

Several weeks ago, against Saint Joseph’s on Hawk Hill, the Dragons went for a medium 62-52 triumph and then a few days later here in their Daskalakis Athletic Center, they made it a tight fitting 54-52 overtime victory against Villanova.

On Tuesday morning, Drexel coach Denise Dillon treated the elementary school education crowd to thumper, not the rabbit from Disney’s Bambi, but rather thumper as in a 69-31 blowout of La Salle that was over by halftime and then it got worse.

The defensive scoring handcuff was the second fewest points ever allowed in Drexel’s history and it was the Dragons’ 300th home win since the program became Division I in 1982-83. 

Entering the third quarter with a 36-21 deficit, the Explorers’ Claire Jacobs cut the differential to 13 with an old-fashioned three-point play before Drexel (6-4) lowered the boom with a 12-0 run the rest of the period and then kept it going to make it 22-0 through the next until La Salle’s Jordon Lewis scored for a brief halt to the carnage.

Ultimately, it was 33-10 over the final 20 minutes with La Salle (6-5) getting its last five in the closing 2:13 on a pair of foul shots and a three-ball from Kayla Braxton-Young.

“It was a great team win,” Dillon said afterwards. “We set the tone from the beginning on the defensive end. We scored a good amount of points in the first half from the turnovers – 23 – and that has to be our go-to continuously. 

“The half-court was a little bit sluggish, but with the rotation, getting a lot of people in there, kept our heads up, great win.”

Drexel forced 28 turnovers for the game and outscored the Explorers 29-8 in transition.

Bailey Greenberg had 16 points for Drexel, of which 14 came in the first half, while Kate Connolly scored a career-high 12 off the bench, Keishana Washington scored 11, and Ana Ferariu scored 10.

No one scored in double figures for La Salle, Lewis collected eight points, Jacobs had seven, and Braxton-Young had the five at the end.

“We wanted to create a lot off our defense,” Connolly said. “We think defense gives us our identity, and so just creating all that and creating points in transition, just stopping them from getting across, gave us a lot of energy and boosted the whole team.”

Both teams were coming off long breaks due to the finals – nine days for Drexel and 10 for La Salle – as well as tough losses the last time they were in action. The Dragons had lost 50-49 at Bucknell while La Salle fell 70-43 at Rider.

“You have to need that break to re-group,” said Dillon. “We weren’t pleased with that last game that we played.

“It was good. They focused on their finals and showed up at practice and did what was necessary to get a little better this week. 

“We changed the lineup a little. We were ready to sub throughout and keep the rotation fresh and keep them going,” she continued.

“The less thinking the players do, that’s our job, and the more aggressive and instinctual they are, the better we’ll be.”

La Salle, which is 0-1 within the Big Five competition, returns to the City Series Saturday hosting Villanova at 2:30 p.m., though the Explorers will be ready to tip one half-hour after the men’s game in front concludes, so it could start a little earlier.

Drexel has another morning game within the city this week, on Friday down 33^rd Street at The Palestra at 11:30 to play Penn, which routed the Dragons here last year in a game that had two of the top defensive squads in the nation when they met.

The Quakers have lost just one game and after the holiday break Drexel will conclude its non-conference slate hosting America East favorite Maine on Dec. 30 at 4:30 p.m. ahead of a men’s game.

The Dragons will then begin play in the Colonial Athletic Association on Jan. 3 at Charleston.

“Every game we put on the schedule is to prepare us for the CAA,” Dillon said. “We have seen our greatest weaknesses and we have seen our greatest strengths so it’s really just turning those weaknesses into strengths and building off our strengths.

“We know Penn is a great team. We know the Palestra, not an easy place to shoot, so of course you’re going to go back to your identity and count on a defensive battle and rebound the basketball.”

In a bit of irony Connolly’s father, Jim, and Greenberg’s father, Chip, were teammates at La Salle, and her aunt, Kelly, and grandfather, Charles, all played at La Salle. 

Connolly’s brother, Jim, played for Herb Magee at then-called Philadelphia U. and is the women’s coach at Division II Chestnut Hill College.

Delaware Loses Another Close One

Just 48 hours after a narrow road loss at Gardner-Webb, the Blue Hens struggled again in the fourth quarter and lost at Charlotte, 61-57, at Dale F. Halton Arena in North Carolina in what was also a game with an 11:30 morning tip time.

After shooting 40 percent across the first three periods, Delaware (3-7) could manage just seven points shooting 13.6 percent from the field in the final 10 minutes.

The Blue Hens, the only of the Guru’s 11 other local D-1 in action besides the two teams here, led by as many as 11 in the third quarter over the 49ers (7-2), a former Atlantic 10 school now playing in C-USA.

Samone DeFreese tied the game 57-57 with 1:32 left in regulation before Charlotte hit four foul shots while Delaware missed three from the field in the close of regulation.

Jasmine Dickey scored 13 points, Nicole Enabosi had 11 points and nine rebounds, and DeFreese had nine points and nine rebounds.

“We got the looks we wanted, and I’m okay with the people who took those shots, but you have to knock them down,” said Delaware coach Natasha Adair. “In games like this it’s going to come down to singular possession.”

Still, she thought she saw enough fight that perhaps the Blue Hens will be ready when CAA play starts in a few weeks.

Delaware is now off until hosting George Mason, 1 p.m., on Dec. 29 at the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark, then it’s on to conference on Jan. 3 opening at UNCW.

The Blue Hens and Drexel are travel partners so after their Friday games they will switch road opponents the following Sunday.

Looking Ahead: Rider Looks to Keep Momentum Alive

Only two locals are in action on Wednesday with Princeton on the first of a two-stop Midwest road trip playing at Missouri while Rider will return home off its win at Georgetown and will host Wagner at 7 p.m. at Alumni Gym in Lawrenceville, N.J.

No one plays Thursday while on Friday there’s the 11:30 a.m. Drexel at Penn game. 

Saint Joseph’s comes off it’s break playing Harvard in Florida Atlantic’s tournament at 2 p.m. and then on Saturday the Hawks will meet the winner or loser of the game between the hosts and Furman.

Princeton completes its Midwest trip at Saint Louis on Friday night.

The Saturday games involving La Salle and Saint Joseph’s are the only ones on the slate while on Sunday Temple wraps up the pre-Christmas games hosting Florida Gulf Coast at noon at McGonigle Hall.

Also, on Sunday, Penn State will host Sacred Heart at noon in the Bryce Jordan Center.

Nationally Noted: Surgery for Geno

Just after a gritty challenge Monday night from former and future Big East opponent No. 16 DePaul in Chicago, No. 2 Connecticut announced Tuesday that Hall of Fame coach Geno Auriemma will undergo a surgical procedure on Wednesday to alleviate symptoms caused by diverticulitis.

 While the hospital stay will be brief, it will be determined whether he will return fast enough or associate head coach Chris Dailey will run the team Sunday when the Huskies host Oklahoma at 4 p.m. at the Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Conn.

There were no games of note Tuesday but on Wednesday No. 23 Tennessee will visit top-ranked Stanford at 10 p.m. out West.

 On Thursday, No. 10 UCLA is at Georgia at 11 a.m. while Duke is at No. 5 South Carolina at 7.

Nationally on Sunday, besides the UConn game, Stanford visits Texas at 1 p.m., No. 24 Michigan visits No. 8 Florida State at 1:30 while UCLA will be at No. 12 Indiana at noon.

After that, no games until the following weekend but we will be wrapping up the decade and offer other items in the interim.

And that’s the report.