Drexel Women's Basketball Improves to 5-0 With 64-47 Win Over Tulsa

Philadelphia - The Drexel women's basketball team is officially off to its best start in program history. The Dragons improved to 5-0 on the season with a 64-47 win over the Tulsa Golden Hurricane (2-3). Kamile Nacickaite led the way for Drexel with 20 points, and matched her career high with six three pointers. Tyler Hale scored a career-high 18 points and pulled down seven rebounds.  Taleya Mayberry led Tulsa with 12 points and spurred a second-half comeback with four steals. 

Drexel exploded out gates from the opening tip, taking a 9-2 lead in the first three minutes of play and cultivating it into a gaping 20-point margin at halftime. The Dragons would lead by as much as 23 points early in the second half, but nearly let the advantage slip away when a scoring drought of nearly eight minutes coupled with a 20-4 spurt by the Golden Hurricane clipped the margin to at little as nine points. 

Nacickaite stilled the Hurricane with her sixth three-pointer at the 5:19 mark to put the Dragons back on top 50-40 and essentially turn the game into a free-throw shooting contest for the duration. 

Hollie Mershon gave her team an important lift off the bench with seven points, three assists and a steal to go along with a career-high-tying eight rebound effort to lead the team. Sophomore forward Taylor Wootton continued to elevate her game, with a career-high 13 points and four assists while shooting 6-for-9 from the floor.

Drexel blistered the rims, shooting 65.2 percent (15-23) in the first half after opening the game by making five of its first six shots. On the defensive side of the game, the Dragons held Tulsa to 6-for-25 shooting from the floor and 0-for-8 from distance, with leading scorer Taleya Mayberry going a woeful 1-for-7.  

The second half seemed to be more of the same for the Dragons, as Nacickiate knocked down another three-pointer and Hale drove the lane for a pair of layups to forge a 23-point lead at the 16:21 mark. The tide quickly shifted, taking with it the Dragons' scoring touch. 

For the next seven minutes and 53 seconds, Drexel did not hit a single shot from the field. Four points from the free-throw line were all the Dragons could muster while the Hurricanes aggressively attacked the basket. 

Mayberry capped Tulsa's 20-4 run with a three-pointer that banked in from the top of the arc and shrunk Drexel's lead to just 47-40 at the 5:45 mark. 

With the Hurricanes swirling and the game teetering on the brink of meltdown, Mershon drew a pair of defenders with a dribble to the left side of the lane then hit Nacickaite for an open look at a three-pointer, the junior guard obliged with a swished shot that seemed to set things back on track. 

The Dragons shot 12-for-12 from the free-throw line from that point, including four from Hale to cap her career night, to put the contest out of Tulsa's reach. 

Drexel's 5-0 start is the best in the program's history, topping a pair of 4-0 starts in 2001-02 and in 1982-83, which was the team's first year as a Division I program.  The victory also wraps up a four-game homestand and a string of five straight contests in Philadelphia. Drexel hit the road for its first trip outside of the city this weekend with the Dragons travel to play ACC power Virginia in Charlottesville.