No. 7 Drexel Advances to CAA Championship Game with Last-Second Win Over No. 6 Towson
Hunter Peters
WASHINGTON, D.C. (March 16, 2024) – Senior
Chloe Hodges scored the game-winning basket off an inbounds play with 3.2 seconds to play, lifting 7
th-seeded Drexel past 6
th-seeded Towson, 69-68, in the second semifinal game of the CAA Women’s Basketball Championship presented by Primis on Saturday evening at the Entertainment & Sports Arena.
It was the third tournament victory by two points or less for the Dragons (18-14), who advance to the CAA championship game for the fifth time in the past six years. Drexel will meet top-seeded Stony Brook at 2 p.m. on Sunday. The Tigers fell to 20-11 after the loss.
It’s the first time a team has reached the finals of the CAA Tournament by winning three consecutive one-possession games.
Junior guard
Amaris Baker poured in a game-high 23 points for Drexel, while Hodges tallied 15 points and
Hetta Saatman added 11 points. Towson got a team-best 20 points from
Patricia Anumgba and
Kylie Kornegay-Lucas netted 15 points, 13 of which came in the second half.
A free throw by
Alexia Nelson put Towson ahead 68-67 with 18.0 seconds to go, which was the Tigers’ first lead since late in the first quarter. Following a Tigers’ foul with four seconds on the clock, Drexel’s
Brooke Mullin lobbed a perfect inbounds pass into the lane to Hodges, who sealed her defender and finished off the glass. Towson was unable to connect on a final shot at the buzzer.
The two teams swapped the lead five times in the opening quarter before Drexel closed the period on an 11-2 run to go up 18-10. Reserve guard
Erin Sweeney nailed a pair of threes and Baker added the other five points during the spurt.
The Dragons got seven straight points from Hodges and four from
Jasmine Valentine to extend their lead to 13 (33-20) before Towson trimmed the deficit to 35-26 at the half.
The Tigers trailed by eight midway through the third quarter when they made a run. Back-to-back buckets from Anumgba followed by an India Johnson trey from the right wing brought Towson within two, 44-42. However, Hodges and Baker responded with five straight points and Drexel held a five-point edge after three.
Towson continued to claw back in the fourth quarter and tied the game at 58-58 on a
Taiye Johnson three-point play with 5:49 left. Drexel went back up by five with 1:26 to play, but Towson pulled even again after an Anumgba three-pointer and a steal and layup by Kornegay-Lucas.
Both teams shot the ball well, with Towson hitting 47.2% of its shots from the floor and Drexel making 45.6%.
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