By Mel Greenberg
PHILADELPHIA - The only thing memorable for Drexel coach Denise Dillon about the Dragon's 48-42 win over Delaware Thursday night in a Colonial Athletic Association game at the Daskalakis Athletic Center will be the final score.
Drexel (13-10, 8-4 CAA) jumped to an 8-0 lead, sunk into a mire with the Blue Hens (6-18, 5-7), fell behind by seven-points in the second half, and then rallied to complete the Dragons' first season sweep of Delaware since both were in the America East in 1998-99.
Dillon's team broke an 18-game losing streak against the Blue Hens in Newark earlier this season.
"It wasn't the prettiest game of basketball, but we found a way to pull it out," the former Villanova star said. "As we told our players, the hustle plays are always going to be key for us. And they played hard."
Drexel, a preseason pick of eighth, moved into a third-place tie with Virginia Commonwealth and Towson, two games behind second-place James Madison, whom the Dragons will host Sunday at noon. Old Dominion, the perennial CAA champion, is unbeaten in the conference and nationally ranked.
Gabriela Marginean scored 15 of her game-high 19 points in the second half to lead Drexel, while Narissa Suber had 14 points.
Delaware's Sha'Ron Harrison was the only Blue Hen in double figures with 13 points.
"We're still young," said Delaware coach Tina Martin, who has had a rebuilding situation on her hands after the Blue Hens were picked as an at-large team last season for the NCAA tournament.
Drexel connected on 7-of-29 three-point attempts, although Dillon said that attempted perimeter attack was not part of the original game plan. Suber hit 4-of-8 treys, while Jasmina Rosseel hit 3-of-10.
It was the Dragons' turn to participate in the ongoing "Think Pink," campaign for breast cancer awareness, thereby transforming the blue and gold colors that usually predominate the Dac.
Temple will be doing its Think Pink day on Sunday when Duquesne visits at 2 p.m.
"There was a little bit of a flow down the stretch, but that was after a basketball was made, which is usually the case. But we held the lead and definitely needed this one going in our next stretch.
"Once the kids learn to make better decisions, we're going to be a very good team," Martin said.
Temple's Dupree in NBA Skills Contest
Former Temple star Candice Dupree, one of the top players last summer in her second season in the WNBA, will again performaer this weekend in the annual All-Star Haier Shooting Stars Contest in New Orleans.
Dupree, who plays for the Chicago Sky, will team with the NBA’s Chris Duhon and Chicago Bulls’ legend and three-time NBA champion B.J. Armstrong to form Team Chicago.
The competition will be televised nationally as part of NBA All-Star Saturday Night, which also features the Foot Locker Three-Point Shootout, Sprite Slam Dunk and PlayStation Skills Challenge. TNT and ESPN Radio’s national coverage will begin Saturday, February 16 at 8 p.m. EST.
The trio will compete against defending champion Detroit (Chauncey Billups, Swin Cash and Bill Laimbeer), Phoenix (Amare Stoudemire, former Rutgers star Cappie Pondexter and Eddie Johnson) and San Antonio (Tim Duncan, Becky Hammon and David Robinson).
Pondexter's Phoenix Mercury are the WNBA defending champions.
The Haier Shooting Stars contest features one current NBA player, one current WNBA player and one NBA legend on each team.
There are six numbered shooting locations of increasing difficulty, with each team attempting to make all shots in numeric order in the fastest time. Each team will select a specific player rotation to follow throughout the competition.
Each shot must be made before the next player begins shooting in succession. Teams have up to two minutes to complete the entire shooting course and the team that completes all six shots in the least amount of time is declared the winner. In case of a tie, a shoot-off will be used to determine the winner.
A two-time WNBA All-Star, Dupree finished second in last year’s contest after teaming with Ben Gordon and Bulls’ legend Scottie Pippen.
Incidentally, Xavier lost to host Dayton, 44-43, Thursday night, dropping the Musketeers into a second-place tie with the Owls in the Atlantic Ten, although Xavier has the tie-break by virtue of last week's win over Temple.
Holy Family Still Unbeaten
A trio of Tigers scored in double figures to keep seventh ranked Holy Family University unbeaten with a 67-54 win over Goldey-Beacom College in a Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) contest on Thursday night at the Campus Center in Northeast Philadelphia.
Coach Mike McLaughlin's team, also ranked first in the NCAA Northeast Region, is now a perfect 23-0 overall and 14-0 in CACC play. Goldey-Beacom is 10-13 overall and 7-7 in the conference.
The Tigers were led by guard Kelly Killion’s 13 points. Guard Melissa Brooks added 10 points and a team-high three blocked shots. Center Christine McCollum scored 10 points, grabbed seven rebounds, dealt four assists and had three steals.
On Saturday, Holy Family will travel to Dominican for a CACC cross-over game at1 p.m. The Tigers can cllaim home-court advantage throughout the CACC Tournament with a win. The game will be broadcast via CSTV broadband: http://www.cstv.com/ncaa/divii.
-- Mel
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