Drexel avenges harsh loss to William & Mary

IT IS AMAZING what four days without a game can produce. Coming off a crazy five games in 10 days (because of a makeup in the middle), playing on its homecourt and facing a team that scored 108 points in that makeup, Drexel scored the first 11 points against William & Mary on Thursday night, had leads of 16-2, 22-4 and 30-8 while playing a near-perfect first 10 minutes and never really let up, winning, 79-61.

First-year coach Zach Spiker was concerned about a lack of depth before the season ever began. So you can imagine how he felt after that stretch of games that started with a win in overtime over Hofstra, included a a loss in double overtime at Towson and ended with an impossible loss when leading by 10 with about a minute left at Hofstra.

With sixth man Miles Overton out for the rest of the season with a wrist injury after averaging 9.5 points, it would have been somewhat understandable if the Dragons, losers of 11 out of 13 and six games from the end of the regular season, came with less than a great effort. Instead, they really could not have played much better on offense at the start and on defense for all 40 minutes.

The Tribe hit 17 threes and scored 1.48 points per possession against the Dragons on Jan. 30. Only Louisville, which just happens to be the best defensive team in the country, has held the Tribe to fewer than the 61 points Drexel allowed, a nice 47-point turnaround from that first meeting. In fact, W & M scored more second half-points then (63) than in two halves Thursday.

"College basketball can be crazy," Spiker said. "You gave up 108 and this team scored 63 in a half down there."

That number has been on Drexel's locker-room board since. The Tribe shot 63 percent that night.

"I couldn't write it in bigger letters; 108's been on our locker-room board," Spiker said. "We played them (on a) Monday. I've been up since Tuesday morning. I think our guys have responded. We're still not where we need to be defensively, but I thought we had a much more focused and efficient effort."

W & M coach Tony Shaver sensed the early avalanche, calling a timeout only 1:47 into the game, his team trailing, 5-0. It was a good idea. It just didn't stop his team from getting buried.

"I thought every shot we took, with the exception of, really, three shots in the first half, were the quality we wanted," Spiker said. "We really talked a lot about hunting and finding the right shot."

W & M (13-11, 7-6 CAA) came in averaging 81.6 points and had shot 50 percent or better in eight of its previous 11 games. The Tribe senior scoring exacta of Omar Prewitt and Daniel Dixon has lit up everybody in the CAA for years. They finished the game with only 27 points, but 2,893 for their careers.

The Dragons freshmen guard line of Kurk Lee and Kari Jonsson will have some pretty nice career numbers by the time they are finished. They had 36 points in this one; Jonsson scored 23, including six threes. He shoots 45.3 percent from the arc and has 62 made threes, a big number for a freshman. Lee has 132 assists, such a big number that he needs only seven to break the great Michael Anderson's school freshman record.

Drexel also got a solid game from Sammy Mojica (12 points, six assists). The Williamses, Austin and Rodney, combined for 20 points, 15 rebounds and six assists. Austin also four blocks and two steals. The Dragons (9-17, 3-10) had 11 steals on the way to 23 points off turnovers. They had 21 assists against just seven turnovers, all great numbers Spiker liked. He also liked, in retrospect, how his scout team lit up the regulars while emulating the Tribe in Wednesday's practice.

"We couldn't stop them," Spiker said. "I was furious. Everyone was mad. I think because of that, we had more urgency today."

They surely played that way.

jerardd@phillynews.com

@DickJerardi