By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru
NEWARK, Del. – One year after the Drexel women suffered an unhappy finish in the Colonial Athletic Association championship game losing to third-seed Elon 57-45 at home, the Dragons are going to get a chance for a do-over Saturday afternoon against a different opponent.
Coach Denise Dillon’s group will face Towson, making its first appearance this far in its own CAA history, at 1 p.m. here in the University of Delaware’s Bob Carpenter Center (TV: NBC Sports-Philadelphia).
Towson’s only other appearance in a conference championship occurred in 1984 beating Delaware for the ECC title back when NCAA women’s basketball was just in its third season.
The fourth-seeded Tigers (19-12), who split with the Dragons during the season, had an easy time of it here in the opener, ending ninth-seeded Hofstra’s Cinderella run with a 69-48 win fueled by a tournament-record second quarter offensive 29-8 thrust.
The Pride (11-22) had made their own CAA tourney history after dispatching defending champion and eighth seed Elon in Wednesday’s opener, they proceeded to upset No. 1 seed James Madison Thursday, making the preseason favorite Dukes the first top seed to be eliminated in the quarterfinals.
That result became the luck of the second-seeded Dragons on the eve of St. Patrick’s Day weekend considering Drexel lost both regular season games to JMU and would have been a significant underdog against the Dukes in the championship.
As it was a year ago, Drexel made it this far for the sixth time after a nail-bitter in the semifinals Friday afternoon just as the they did a year ago, outlasting Delaware 58-53, while Elon upset JMU the same day.
The chance this time to move within 40 regulation minutes to become one of potentially two Philly Six schools — the other neighborhood-rival Penn in the Ivy tournament — to make the NCAA field became reality against sixth-seeded Northeastern in another epic performance rallying for a 73-69 victory in overtime.
Drexel’s one other CAA crown came in 2009, ending a 17-year rule by former member Old Dominion in the semifinals, though the Dragons still had to beat James Madison, 64-58, at the Dukes’ JMU Convocation Center for the title.
The fact that it took an extra five minutes Friday for Drexel (24-7) to get the job done against the Huskies (21-10) should not be surprising considering the history of the series featuring overtime encounters, including one claimed by the Dragons which went an NCAA record five of them on Feb. 22, 2007 at home in Philadelphia after squandering a 13-point lead.
Earlier this season Drexel held a 14-point lead in the second half against Northeastern up in Boston and squandered all of it to be rescued when Bailey Greenberg hit a winning shot as regulation time expired.
The second time in Philadelphia did not involve any drama last month with the Dragons easily winning 76-45.
On Friday here, Greenberg, the CAA player of the year, was a factor in the win combining with Niki Metzel for 39 points.
Metzel, a cause in Drexel’s early game struggles going to the bench with two quick fouls in the first period, finished with a career-record 24 points, shooting 8-for-10 from both the field and the line, while Greenberg, who played all but two of the 45 minutes, had a double double 15 points and a career-record 15 rebounds.
Keishanna Washington, a member of the CAA all-freshman squad, also scored in double figures collecting 14 points while making all four of her foul shots and a field goal in the overtime. Metzel was 7-for-8 from the line in the extra period.
Ana Ferariu off the bench gave Drexel depth with eight points.
Northeastern’s Ayanna Dublin had 16 points, Gabby Giacone had 14 points and 11 rebounds, Jess Genco had 13 points but struggled from the field shooting 2-for-15 thanks to the defense of Drexel guard Hannah Nihil, and Alex Hill scored 12.
“Well, that was a game,” said Dillon, a former Villanova star. “Talking to the team, I said it would be a game of possessions and it exactly was that.
“I was pleased with our poise and resilience and they did a great job.”
With Metzel, who had 20 in the quarterfinal win, on the bench early, Drexel struggled in the the first period, trailing 15-9 when it ended, though it might have been more had not it been for the Dragons’ defense, which is tops in the nation in limiting points.
In the next stanza, however, Drexel fought back to get to a 23-23 tie at the break.
“I was a little surprised by that, we weren’t shooting the ball well, we weren’t on point, defensively,” Dillon said of the struggle. “But we were still in a great position there, 0-0, at halftime.
“I think it just comes down to the players understanding. The jitters are there, the excitement, their shots weren’t falling, but the effort was there and it continued. We kept ourselves in a good position to get the job done and we held on.
“We talked to the team after the first quarter and said, ‘listen the shots aren’t falling, but we’ll get into a little bit of a rhythm, but just focus on the defense end,’ because we did stop a couple of sets when we needed to,” she said.
“But as soon as they heard that, they did regroup and got it back together to give us that opportunity to tie it at the end of the half and get the win in overtime.”
Northeastern got to a six-point lead near the end of the third before Drexel cut it by a basket trailing 45-41.
The momentum swung back to Drexel in the fourth, the Dragons taking the lead 48-46 on a pair of foul shots by Aubree Brown, who had seven points for the game.
Drexel, however, could not get much distance from the Huskies, and after failing behind, Greenberg got the game deadlocked again with a pair of foul shots to make it 54-54 with 1 minute, 27 seconds left in regulation.
The score was still deadlocked with Northeastern in possession and a timeout with 24 seconds left.
Drexel defensed the Huskies and as time expired Shannon Todd’s attempted three-point game-winner was off the mark.
“Yeah, they had a chance to win it but we got the stop to put it in overtime so the girls felt good about that once we got the stop,” Dillon said. “Once we got the stop, the energy level was back up and we did a nice job in the overtime.”
Greenberg’s layup as the overtime got under way gave Drexel a lead the Dragons would not relinquish and grew to six on Washington’s two foul shots.
Northeastern cut it in half on Hill’s three-point play with 1:53 left, but then Todd fouled, Metzel hit two free throws with 1:36 left and then Northeastern coach Kelly Cole, a former Harvard assistant, was hit with a technical.
She admitted to working the refs but of the assessment, Cole said in the postgame press conference “No, there was no warning.”
Metzel hit two more free throws for a seven-point lead with 1:24 left.
It got down to four with 54 seconds left, Brown hit two from the line to get it back to six, Genco missed a three-point attempt, but Hill missed one of two from the line for the Huskies on an ensuing Drexel foul to leave the score at 68-63 with 43 seconds left.
Washington then hit two more from the line for a 70-63 lead with 32 seconds remaining in the extra period.
Genco’s three sliced it to 70-66 with 19 seconds left but forced to foul, Northeastern put Metzel on the line for two more and a six-point advantage with 17 seconds left.
Dublin swung it back to three behind with a driving layup and foul shot with nine seconds left.
Metzel then went back to the line making one of two with eight seconds left.
Northeastern then missed a three, got the rebound, and then missed a jumper as the game ended.
Of her early struggles in the game, Greenberg said, “Sometimes I psych myself and put too much pressure, so I always try to remind myself defense and rebounding, if you focus on those things other good things will come from it.
“I think the team did a great job with Nikki on the bench with two fouls. She does a lot of scoring and she draws attention away from other people as well, so we held it together and was really proud of us.”
As for playing Towson, Dillon said, “Obviously (Kionna) Jeter is a great scorer,” Dillon said. “And (Nukiya) Mayo as well. So we’re going to put our two top defenders and we’ll mix it up — a little bit of zone and a little bit of man.
“And as I said to the team, we have the No. 1 scoring defense in the country going against the No. 2 offensive scoring team here in the CAA, so we do have our work cut out for us.”
Northeastern is still hopeful for an at-large bid to the WNIT, Cole saying, “We do have a resume.
“Wow, that was great basketball,” Cole said of the game. “You hate for anyone to come out on the losing end. I think that is what March is all about. That’s what the CAA is all about. It was a fun game to be a part of.
“Both teams played well, played up to the occasion, and then as I said to the team, this is one, both teams need to walk away with their heads up because it was great on both ends of the game and very, very proud of our ladies today and throughout the season.”
Towson Advances to First CAA Title Game
After an opening period in which Towson took a slight 14-10 lead, the Tigers then hit the accelerator switch to a 22-0 run and ultimate tourney record 29 points in the second period.
Nukiya Mayo had 22 points for the game and Qierra Murray scored 10.
The Tigers shot 55.6 percent from the field in the first period, 57.9 percent in the second, and 50 percent in the third with 52.1 percent being the mark for the entire game.
Jaylen Hines had 17 points for Hofstra and Boogie Brozoski, who had a record-setting 42 points in the opening win over Elon, scored 12.
Towson started the conference schedule with a buzzer-beating win at Drexel while the Dragons came back last week in the final regular season game winning 77-44 in Maryland.
“I think we played some good basketball today. I think our defense turned into our offense and so we were going out there and being aggressive and got ahead in the game and so stayed ahead with the aggression,” said Diana Richardson, who took the CAA coach of the year honors from her peers prior to the start of the tournament.
“We stepped into the passing lanes, we got steals and run outs and that fueled us. We kind of like to be uptempo,” she said. “We continued to do that and turn them over and go for layups.”
In saying of playing Northeastern or Drexel before knowing who Towson’s opponent would be, Richardson said, “They both play system basketball and very similar.
“When you finish a game you look at the things you have to fix,” she said referring to the 27 turnovers, though it didn’t cause too much disruption.
“We have to be poised. Especially tomorrow. We have to be poised with the ball and our guards have to be poised with the ball and our guards have to be poised with the ball.
“ We have to be strong with the ball as well. We got some rebounds taken away so we have to take care of that. We’ll be doing a lot of film watching tonight.”
As for the title game debut, Richardson, just in her second season with the Tigers after having served on staffs at nearby George Washington and Maryland, said, “We’ve just concentrated on getting better. As we get better the wins will come.”
Meanwhile, after a season of disappointment, Hofstra finished with some good memories with the two upsets.
“Today, Towson had Mayo and we needed a little bit more,” Hofstra coach Krista Kilburn-Stevesky, a former North Carolina State star, said. “We shot 62 to their 48 and with their 27 turnovers, if the ball goes in the hole, we’re having a different conversation right now talking about the semifinals.
“That’s the highs and lows of basketball.”
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