The Drexel University men’s basketball team lost back-to-back games, falling 90-76 at home against the College of Charleston Jan. 28 and 108-85 on the road to the College of William & Mary Jan. 30.
Freshman guard Kurk Lee scored a career high 25 points in the Dragons’ loss to William & Mary.
Halfway through their road matchup with the Tribe, it appeared as if the Dragons were going to have a chance to upset a team that was tied for second place in the Colonial Athletic Association.
Going into halftime, Drexel trailed William & Mary 45-44. Freshman Kari Jonsson led the Dragons in scoring throughout the first two frames by picking up 12 points on a perfect five-for-five shooting from the field. Senior Rodney Williams, too, was in double figures by the end of the first half, scoring ten points, with six of them coming from the free throw line.
Lee was also impressive during that stretch, scoring nine points and dishing out five assists in the game’s opening frame.
The Dragons kept things interesting early on in the second half, but the Tribe went on a 23-6 run from the 16:37 mark to the 10:46 point in the period.
William & Mary were led by Daniel Dixon and Omar Prewitt, who scored 32 and 24 points respectively.
Kurk Lee did all that he could in an attempt to keep his team in the game, scoring 16 points off four-of-five shooting from three-point range in the second half. Williams also had nine second-half points and was perfect from the free-throw line on five tries. Unfortunately for the Dragons, they could not slow down the duo of Dixon and Prewitt, who combine to score 33 of the Tribe’s 63 second-half points.
As a unit, the Tribe made 65.8 percent there field goals and 53.3 percent of their three pointers in the second half. Drexel’s defense had no answer for a William & Mary team that was seemingly on fire for the game’s final 20 minutes.
The second half struggle against the Tribe was an all too familiar scene for the Dragons, who, just two days earlier, struggled in the second half of their home game against the College of Charleston Cougars Jan. 28. Much like the William & Mary game, Drexel was in it at halftime, trailing the Cougars 47-44.
Jonsson led the team with 15 first half points on four-of-six shooting from three and three-of-four shooting from the charity stripe in the first half. Williams and junior Sammy Mojica both also contributed with six-point efforts in the first half.
However, as was their problem against the tribe, the Dragons struggled to slow down a duo of scorers, this time being the Cougars’ Grant Riller and Joe Chealey. Riller and Chealey scored 19 and 14 points respectively in the first half against Drexel.
Their success continued into the second half, where the pair combined for 20 of the Cougars’ 43 points in that period. Jarrell Brantley also got hot in the second half for the Cougars, scoring 15 points 15 points of his own.
Jonsson cooled off and was held to just two points in the second frame. Mojica and Williams both scored nine points in the second half, but it was not enough to keep up with a Cougars offense that feature three players who were on a roll offensively. Charleston outscored Drexel 43-32 in the second half and came away with a 90-76 victory.
With the two losses, Drexel’s record fell to 8-15 on the season and 2-8 in the CAA. Next up for the Dragons is a home game at the Daskalakis Athletic Center against Hofstra University Feb. 4.