Sarah Curran and the Dragons won their first two games of 2015, both against CAA competition. (Photo Courtesy – DrexelDragons.com)

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.

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Meghan Creighton has lead the Dragons to victories in their last two games. (Photo Courtesy – DrexelDragons.com)

Bouncing back after losing their second game of the season to a talented Princeton University Tigers squad, the Drexel University women’s basketball has leaped to a 3-1 record, capturing two key back-to-back wins at home in the past week and a half. First, the Dragons defeated Colgate University, and then before the Thanksgiving holiday, took on Philadelphia rival Saint Joseph’s University.

If the past two games are any indication of what the season will hold for the women’s basketball team, the outlook is positive — very positive. Two wins coming off a loss not only show the team’s ability for success against competitive opponents in and out of conference, but also their resilience and ability to bounce-back from a tough loss.

In their first match-up against Colgate Nov. 22, the Dragons fortunately jumped out to a good start early, closing the first half with a 33-19 lead. Notable performances in the game came from returning leaders Meghan Creighton and Sarah Curran, who had 14 and 19 points respectively.

In the first half, Creighton was a force to be reckoned with, racking up 11 points, coming into halftime shooting 100 percent from the floor, including two made three-pointers. Rachel Pearson also added two threes in the first half to keep Dragon scoring consistent and high.

While the Dragons won the game by eight points with a score of 59-51 and held the lead for the entirety of the game, the Raiders outscored Drexel in the second half by four points, leaving narrow room for the Dragons to escape with a win as their defense and shooting percentage declined through the last 20 minutes of play.

The largest lead the Dragons held was 17 points with 18:36 left to play, after Curran hit a three to net the first bucket for either team in the second half. The Dragon shooting went cold in the second half, dropping from a scorching 52 percent from the floor to 38 percent, while Colgate leaped up, from . Curran kept the team alive in the second half, scoring an additional 13 points to add to her 19 from the first half with less than 20 minutes to go.

While the Dragons did significant damage from behind the three-point line, making six three-pointers, Colgate dominated the inside game. Twenty-four of the Raider’s points (just less than half), came from within the paint, while Drexel had only 14 points inside. The Raiders also outrebounded the Dragons, ripping down 33 boards to Drexel’s 30.

However, Drexel proved in their next match-up Nov. 25, a battle with the St. Joe’s Hawks, that their inside game can also be a strong suit. While their presence in the paint versus Colgate was less than impressive, the Dragons roasted St. Joe’s from the inside out. While St. Joe’s still outrebounded Drexel by two, the Dragons put 34 points on the board from the paint, while the Hawks only put up 18.

Again, the scoring was led by Curran, in an absolute dominant performance where she netted 25 points, complemented by two steals and one assist. The Dragons put two other scorers in double digits: sophomore reserve Alexis Smith, who came off the bench hot with 13 points, and Creighton, who recorded a double-double with 10 points and 10 boards.

St. Joe’s only lead of the game came within the first three minutes of play as they went up by one point. However, as the Drexel offense heated up, the Hawks fell behind. Drexel went up 17 as the first half closed, shooting an incredible 71 percent from the floor, and 56 percent from three. Drexel also capitalized on SJU’s carelessness with the ball, creating 19 points from the 17 turnovers they forced. Drexel themselves took great care of the ball, with only six turnovers total.

Drexel maintained their distance in the second half, taking the win with a 13-point lead at a final score of 76-63. However, it is interesting to note that again, the Dragons lost the second half, outscored 31-27 by the Hawks in the final twenty minutes of play.

As the season continues, it will be imperative for Drexel to ensure that their second-half performance is just as competitive as their first half one — while it’s hard to come out with high intensity after taking a big lead before a break in the action, second-half performances will be key in competitive conference games, and undoubtedly will be the deciding factor to whether or not a game becomes a win or loss for the Dragons. Drexel will be forced to tighten up their second-half defense and keep their scoring “on” down the home stretch if they want to be successful within the Colonial Athletic Association and make a run for the playoffs.

The Dragons get back to action after their Thanksgiving reprieve Saturday, Dec. 6, at 4 p.m. in the Brown Classic in Providence, Rhode Island, versus St. Bonaventure University.

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Point guard Meghan Creighton finished with 10 points, six rebounds and three assists in Drexel’s 69-58 loss to James Madison University last season at the DAC. Creighton had 11 points in the team’s Nov. 16 matchup against Cornell University. (Ken Chaney – The Triangle)

Roommates Megan Marecic and Kelsi Lidge are a dynamic duo — not only as friends, but as teammates on the hardwood.

In their season home opener Nov. 16, the two freshmen each had significant contributions for the women’s basketball teams as the Dragons secured their first win of the season against the Cornell Big Red at the Daskalakis Athletic Center.

Drexel, now 1-0, topped Cornell by 11 points in their win, with a 62-53 final score. The Dragons saw three returning players in double-digit scoring — sophomore Sarah Curran, with 12 points in the first half alone, junior Meghan Creighton with a total of 11 points, and senior Jamila Thompson with an additional 11 points.

The Dragons immediately jumped out to a lead in the first half, ending their first 20 minutes of play with a 36-23 lead at halftime.

While the double-digit efforts of the returning players were notable, the Dragons saw equally exciting performances from some of their rookie players, indicating that younger players will again play a key role this season. Lidge, a 5-foot-8 freshman forward, recorded an impressive 21 minutes in her collegiate debut, to finish with a total of four points, three defensive rebounds, two assists and two steals.

Marecic, a 5-foot-11 guard, had an equally remarkable performance in her first contest as a Dragon, pulling down four boards and scoring nine points in her 12 minutes of play. Seven of her nine points came with less than nine minutes remaining in the game, which came in clutch as the Dragons fought to widen the scoring gap with the Big Red, after only scoring seven points in the first 11 minutes of the second half.

While Cornell had the opportunity to fight back with the Dragon’s cold offense in the beginning of the second half, Drexel maintained their lead by at least four points at every moment in the second half. Scores from Marecic, Lidge, Thompson and junior Rachel Pearson helped the Dragons pull away from their opponent in the final minutes of the game and finish the day with an 11-point win.

Both Lidge and Marecic are loving Drexel and the team thus far — each commented that their experience has been great, not only on the court but also in the classroom.

“The biggest thing that drew me to Drexel [basketball] was the team,” Lidge said. “I wanted to feel that it was a home away from home for me.”

“The coaching staff made me feel right at home, they’re more [like] moms for me. … They definitely had that home atmosphere. That’s what I wanted as well,” Marecic said.

Each said that their first experience on the court was a bit nerve-racking, but ultimately rewarding.

Marecic felt particularly excited to be playing her first game as a Dragon. “It was a really great experience, playing with these girls is pretty awesome,” she said.

“It felt good. I was pretty nervous … but after moving on it felt a lot easier to play with [the team]. Everyone shares the ball, everyone plays together,” said Lidge about her first time on the court.

“Everyone definitely boosts your confidence,” Lidge continued, emphasizing the supportive nature of her teammates and the coaching staff.

However, while they each had excellent performances so far, Marecic and Lidge are motivated to continue looking forward and focus on the team’s success in the future. When asked about their win, they were more interested in their upcoming games this week.

“[We’re] happy that happened, now we’re focused on the next one,” Marecic said with determination.

Her roommate, Lidge, agreed: “Celebrate it until midnight, then move on to the next game.”

The Dragons travel to Princeton University on Wednesday, Nov. 19, to face another Ivy League competitor.

While they’re only one game into the season, both Lidge and Marecic have made it clear by their initial performances and determined attitudes that they will be players to watch throughout the 2014-2015 season.

“[I] can’t wait to see where the season will take us,” Lidge said enthusiastically.

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