Derrick Thomas had 16 points to help Drexel win their 14th straight game. (Josh Verlin/Philahoops)
By JOSH VERLIN
Philahoops Staff
Twitter: @jmverlin
The Colonial Athletic Association has been a top-heavy league this season, with the top half of the league absolutely dominating the bottom half up to this point in the season.
Of the top six schools’ 22 combined losses entering Tuesday night, only three have come to schools in seventh-or-lower place in the league–and two of those losses were by sixth-place Delaware.
One of those top six schools that had not lost to the lower portion of the league has been the Drexel Dragons, whose only two conference blemishes coming into their matchup with William & Mary came against Georgia State and Delaware. The Tribe, with just two conference wins under their belt, figured to be another easy win for Drexel.
Instead, William & Mary (5-23, 3-13 CAA) stayed within six points the entire second half and even took the lead with under four minutes to play, but it wasn’t enough to upset the Dragons at home for the first time this season. Frantz Massenat put Drexel (22-5, 14-2) on his back down the stretch, scoring eight points in the final 2:17 as the Dragons survived, 63-61.
The Tribe just ended a nine-game losing streak during which they’d been outscored by an average of 12.2 points per game, with a home victory over Northeastern on Saturday. The Dragons have had it relatively easy of late, winning 14-straight overall, including their last eight by an average of 13.3 points per game, but this one took a big gut check near the end.
“Once in a while you gotta see where you are in games like this. Let’s see where we at,” Drexel coach Bruiser Flint said afterward. “There’s gonna be some games like this, probably in the playoffs…and I thought guys did a good job of handling it.”
William & Mary had just one lead all game, 52-51 with 3:30 remaining after a layup by Tim Rusthoven. Rusthoven (11 points) was one of four Tribe players who finished the game in double figures, along with Kendrix Brown (11 points), Brandon Britt (12 points) and Marcus Thornton (13 points). Thornton has 31 points in two games against Drexel this year, but has needed 30 shots to do so.
Drexel freshman Damion Lee came off the bench for the first time in his collegiate career after injuring his ankle in the Dragons’ last game, a 78-67 win over Hofstra on Saturday. Lee played just four scoreless minutes in the first half but finished the game with eight points in 19 minutes, including two key free throws with 33 seconds remaining.
With Lee ineffective over the opening 20 minutes, it was Derrick Thomas who picked up the early slack for Drexel. The 6-foot-4 junior had only scored more than seven points just once in his past seven games, but had 13 points by halftime and finished with 16, his seventh double-digit effort this year.
Massenat had 22 to lead all scorers, adding eight assists against just one turnover as the sophomore continues to show why he’s become one of the top players in the conference. The 6-4 point guard hit a number of buckets with the shot clock running down as the Dragon offense struggled to get open looks early in possessions.
“Normally I look at the shot clock around 12 seconds and run our play,” he said, “but if it fails, then I know I just need to get to the rim and get the ball on the rim at least.”
The Dragons entered the game leading the CAA in scoring defense (53.9/game) and second in offensive field-goal percent (43.7 percent), but had some issues with a William & Mary team that was near the bottom of the league in most major statistical categories. Drexel shot 42.3 percent (22-of-52) for the game while allowing the Tribe to shoot 49.0 percent (24-of-49), the Dragons’ worst defensive performance since Fairfield hit half of their shots back on Dec. 28.
“They drove it on us a little bit instead of shooting 3s, so I gotta give ‘em credit,” Flint said. “They knew we were gonna stop them from shooting 3-pointers so they just drove the ball…they made some tough layups driving at the basket.”
Postgame Audio
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Postgame Video
