While the rest of us took our brief reprieves from Drexel University at the end of fall term to vacation and catch up on all the sleep we lost during finals week, the women’s basketball team did not have that luxury. The Dragons have been hard at work, taking four wins and three losses over winter break.
Along with their success over the break, the team has seen some key changes. Starting point guard, Meghan Creighton, is out indefinitely after sustaining an injury to her right knee midway through December.
With Creighton missing on the court, other Dragons have had the opportunity to step up. Namely, junior guard Carrie Alexander and sophomore guard Alexis Smith have had the opportunity to contribute significantly in the Dragon backcourt with Creighton missing from the line-up. Alexander has started the last five games.
Over the break, both Alexander and Smith were awarded “player of the week status” for Drexel, along with constant contributor Rachel Pearson, who has continued to prove herself a force to be reckoned with.
Pearson, a junior starter, is currently averaging 11.5 points per game. She additionally earned all-conference honors as Colonial Athletic Association player of the week for the week of Dec. 29 after her performance versus Miami University in the holiday tournament. In the game, she notched 25 points, going six for 10 from long range. In five of the seven recent games, she has had double digit points, strongly leading the team in the backcourt.
Also helping to lead the Dragons in the new year is their leading scorer, sophomore Sarah Curran, whose consistent performance has her averaging 12.9 points per game.
Additionally, the break brought a significant milestone for head coach Denise Dillon, who coached her way to her 200th career victory in the Dragons’ win over Miami on Dec. 28. Dillon, who is in her 12th season with Drexel, is the fourth current CAA coach to reach this accomplishment.
Wins over the holiday season came versus Miami and University City rival, University of Pennsylvania, with scores of 71-54 and 67-58, respectively. Losses came against University of Pittsburgh, Quinnipiac University, and University of Virginia.
Kicking off their league play with the start of 2015, women’s basketball is now 2-0 in the new year.
The Lady Dragons opened CAA play Jan. 4 on their home court at the Daskalakis Athletic Center versus Northeastern University. They grabbed a 58-35 win, their best defensive game of the season, holding the Huskies to under 40 points.
Key contributions came from Alexander, who took charge on the floor, with a career-high 16 points.
With such a large gap in scoring, the game saw contributions from 10 different Dragons who checked into the game. Scoring was fairly equally distributed, with eight ladies putting points on the board.
Most recently, the team traveled to Elon University Jan. 6 to pick up their second conference win, defeating the Phoenix 57-47. Big contributions for the Dragons came from Pearson with 21 points and Curran with 17.
Keeping their defense on point, Drexel forced the Phoenix to 25 turnovers and held them to just 18 points in the first half. The Dragons led the entire game, never falling behind Elon. However, the Phoenix played even with the Dragons in the second half as the offense went somewhat cold, with Drexel only out-scoring them by one in the second 20 minutes of play.
The women’s team will continue their conference play at home this weekend, Jan 9 versus Hofstra University and Jan. 11 versus the University of North Carolina Wilmington. With their current defensive efforts, the Dragons will hope to keep their conference winning streak alive and stay undefeated on their home court.