In the Liacouras Center on Nov. 12, the stage was set for a high octane game between two of Philly’s best. The Dragons looked to take a lead in Big 5 group play by beating the Temple Owls on their home court. Temple had bested the Dragons in 15 of their last 16 meetings, with Drexel’s lone win coming in 2006. Unfortunately, this trend will continue for now, as Drexel fell to the Owls, 69-61.
Drexel opened the season scoring an average of 84 points per game, and while they did not achieve that total this game, it is evident that they are a great scoring team. Leading scorer, Kobe MaGee, contributed 17 points during the game, with fellow guard Yame Butler giving the Dragons 13. Yame was also active on the glass, grabbing five rebounds, with four of those being offensive and getting a team high two steals. Cole Hargrove poured in 15 points to go with his 12 rebounds, including seven offensive rebounds, being a terror on both ends of the court. Victor Panov contributed eight rebounds, in addition to his five points. Panov was active on both ends of the floor, playing some solid defense on Temple’s forwards despite being in foul trouble for most of the second half. The scoring for Drexel is certainly there. Outside of these four, however, Drexel saw little production on the offensive end.
The game opened with each team trading buckets. For Temple, Jamal Mashburn Jr. was the guy to watch, averaging 25.5 points per game. Early on, however, sophomore guard Zion Stanford took over, scoring the Owl’s first 10 points. On the other side of the ball, Drexel’s Cole Hargrove made his impact early, with some nice post moves, and a monster slam, bringing him to eight points. His defensive presence stalled Temple’s offense for most of the first half, causing multiple misses at the basket and becoming an overall deterrence inside the paint.
The non-Hargrove minutes were killer for the Dragons midway through the first half, as they turned to freshman forward Clem Edomwonyin for some backup center minutes with a platoon of smaller players around him. This stretch saw Temple take advantage of a lack of physicality and experience in the paint, and the Dragons found themselves fighting from behind. Stanford continued to put on a show for the Owls, scoring 19 in the first half.
The Drexel offense struggled for long stretches at a time. MaGee was slow to make an impact on this game, scoring his first point with about eight minutes to go in the first half. Despite this, his passing, ability to draw double teams and overall savviness was able to get his teammates open looks. Butler and Hargrove kept Drexel steady in the game with 11 and eight points respectively in the first half. MaGee eventually got going, finishing the half with eight points as well, coming as a result of some flashy moves, including a highlight crossover that made Temple guard Matteo Picarelli fall over as he glided to the basket for two. MaGee and sophomore guard Shane Blakeney took turns on the Mashburn defensive assignment, holding him to just five points at the half. Temple took a 37-32 advantage into the break, despite some solid defense from Drexel to end the half.
The second half of this one was much like the first. Jason ‘Deuce’ Drake opened up the scoring for Drexel after two and a half minutes of scoreless basketball, but in that time, Drexel had allowed four points to Mashburn and Stanford. Temple continued the scoring, eventually taking a 47-36 lead. Drexel’s offensive sets during this run left a lot to be desired, scoring only four points in four minutes of play. The offense consisted of a lot of iso ball, with a lack of real intention in their play calling causing their movement to become stagnant. The Dragons played at their best in this game when running an offense, setting some high screens, sending guys in motion.
The offense started to pick up when Hargrove became more involved, scoring his first bucket of the second half about five minutes in, followed by two triples from MaGee, cutting the lead to just seven. After another short Temple run, Hargrove and Blakeney both buried it from long range to cut the lead to three with eight minutes to go.
Despite this, down the stretch, Temple held onto their lead, eventually extending it to a six point lead with two minutes to go. A timely bucket from Blakeney cut it down to just four, but what the Dragons saw as some favorable whistles and a few more made free throws from Mashburn saw Temple hold their lead, pulling out the win in a tight game, 69-61.
Shooting was an issue all game for Drexel. As a team, the Dragons shot 7/33 from three and 8/12 from the charity stripe. Temple shot 21/31 from the free throw line, the disparity feeling especially killer down the stretch. Drexel’s halfcourt offense looked way too slow for long periods at a time. Coach Spiker will definitely need to shore up the Dragons’ offensive sets before the next game. Drexel employed a 2-3 zone defense a few times in the second half, and for the most part, it worked — hopefully a sign of a reliable alternate defensive look moving forward.
The breakout player of Drexel’s opening contest, Horace Simmons, played just three minutes tonight, while 7’1” center Ralph Akuta did not log any minutes. It would have been nice to see both of them get a bit more run tonight, seeing how they could have benefitted from more length on the court. The bench play tonight was less than ideal, shooting a combined 3-18 from the field. Drexel has continued to experiment with different solutions to the point guard option, trying out the trio of Blakeney, Reed and Drake as ball carriers, but still have yet to find the production they are looking for at this position through three games.
The Dragons now look onto their next game, with another Big 5 pod game in their sights. This time the Dragons face a 3-0 La Salle University squad on Saturday, at the Daskalakis Center. The Dragons are looking to defend home court, and advance to 1-1 in pod play with the Big 5 classic tournament on horizon!