Drexel Clipped by Temple in WNIT
BOX SCORE
PHILADELPHIA (March 18, 2016) – Drexel saw its season come to a close on Friday night as the Dragons fell to Temple in the first round of the Women’s National Invitation Tournament, 74-66. The game was a close battle until the Owls broke away in the game’s final minutes. The Dragons finish the year at 19-14 overall.
Sarah Curran finished her junior season with one of her best performances of the year, scoring 24 points while going 10-for-20 from the floor and 4-for-5 from long range.
Jessica Pellechio, also a junior, netted 11 points for the Dragons (19-14), and junior
Alexis Smith added 10 points and a team-high five rebounds. Redshirt-junior
Meghan Creighton dished out seven assists and came up with a pair of steals to go along with her two points.
Sara Woods, a sophomore, added six points and four rebounds off the bench in an impressive performance.
Senior
Rachel Pearson, who was the Dragons’ active scoring leader through the season, finished with nine points and three assists to close her career with 1,136 points, 16th-most all time at Drexel. She hit a three-pointer against Temple, leaving her with 251 for her career, third most in Drexel history and ninth-most in CAA history.
The Dragons went toe-to-toe with the Owls for most of Friday’s game, playing at a fast pace against a Temple team which was one of the first left out of the NCAA Tournament field. Drexel hit 10 of its first 12 three-point attempts before failing to connect on its last four, finishing with a still impressive .625 mark from long range on the evening.
Temple, which was led by sophomore Alliya Butts’ 24 points, held a 16-10 lead after the first quarter, but the Dragons stormed back in the second. Smith and Pellechio knocked down three-pointers on consecutive possessions that pulled Drexel within a bucket, and Woods evened the score with her jumper with 7:08 to play before halftime. After the Owls edged back in front, Curran gave Drexel the lead with a three-pointer, following that up with five more points for a personal 8-0 run that put Drexel ahead 26-20 with 3:54 to play before intermission.
Another Curran three-pointer with 2:25 remaining put the Dragons up by seven, 31-24, which would prove to be their largest lead of the game. Temple closed the half on a 7-0 run, though, to pull even at the break.
Though the Owls began to assert themselves on the glass in the third quarter, Drexel’s hot shooting kept the team in it. Temple scored the first points of the second half, but the Dragons promptly rattled off seven straight, with Pearson contributing the first four and Pellechio connecting on another trey to hand the Dragons a 38-33 edge. A pair of Creighton free throws and another bucket from Curran left the Dragons holding a 42-36 lead with 6:31 to play, but the Owls responded with five straight of their own to get back within a point. Butts’ three-pointer with 4:12 to play in the third quarter knotted the game at 44 apiece, and the margin would get no larger than three the rest of the third quarter.
Trailing by three heading into the fourth, the Dragons opened the final period with consecutive threes from Pellechio and Pearson to claim a 58-55 edge. After that Drexel was held off the scoreboard for nearly three minutes as the Owls pushed out to an 8-0 run that left them ahead by five with 5:50 remaining. Temple fought of the Dragons for the win.