Drexel used a trapping press on stoppages of play and made baskets to harass the Nova offense to prevent any significant offensive flow. Some poor passing (or non-pass) decisions caused several turnovers early on, and defensive lapses allowed Drexel to pour in 8 of 10 three point shots in the first half.
After falling behind 27-16, Nova tightened up the perimeter defense and with Drexel either missing shots or turning the ball over, Nova had time to walk the ball up the court and run their 30-second offense. Threes by Roberts, Kimmell, Pearson (2) and two layups by Kane led the charge to close within 34-33 at the half, highlighted by a final play top of the key isolation for Kane who took the forward guarding her to the basket to score at the buzzer.
After an opening three by Drexel to go up 37-33, the first ten minutes of the second half belonged to Nova. With Roberts hitting three more threes, a Pearson bucket and four points from Swiezynski the lead grew to 48-41 with a little more than ten minutes left. From that point on, Nova did little right. After Drexel tied the score at 48, Nova finally got another score by isolating Pearson on the right side to back down her player for a ten foot banker to go ahead for the last tiem with 2:20 left in the game.
Drexel immediately tied it up and caused a turnover on the inbounds play. A stop by Nova gave us the chance to take the lead again, and another isolation play to Pearson resulted in an offbalance shot from the foul line that was rebounded by Drexel. After a time out, Drexel immediately got a bucket on a designed play and Nova was down 52-50 with only little more than a minute to play. A missed driving layup by Roberts and several foul shots by Drexel closed out the loss.
Only six turnovers in each half for Nova which was surprising as the Drexel press really had them on their heels for most of the game. On at least six occasions they actually broke the press downcourt for potential two on one breaks - on three occasions we pulled up, on the other three we were out of sync, Jones being too far under the basket to score, Kane intimidated by a closing defender and scooping up a shot instead of laying it in, Roberts flat out missing a layup, etc. Even when we took our time and got the ball up court against the press, the minimal remaining time didn't allow us to run any kind of offense and it showed in the execution.
Suhey did not play and Scanlon and Sweeney saw less than ten minutes so effectively we played with a small lineup most of the game. Roberts led with 16, Kane and Pearson both had 10. The 12 turnovers were evenly distributed and it certainly was a team effort as no one really stood out on either offense or defense. Just an excruciating final ten minutes to sit through.
It would not be surprising to see more teams pressing us in the upcoming schedule if that was any indication of our ability to deal with it. Kudos to Drexel and Denise Dillon on playing the game that they had to be beat Nova for the first time.
After falling behind 27-16, Nova tightened up the perimeter defense and with Drexel either missing shots or turning the ball over, Nova had time to walk the ball up the court and run their 30-second offense. Threes by Roberts, Kimmell, Pearson (2) and two layups by Kane led the charge to close within 34-33 at the half, highlighted by a final play top of the key isolation for Kane who took the forward guarding her to the basket to score at the buzzer.
After an opening three by Drexel to go up 37-33, the first ten minutes of the second half belonged to Nova. With Roberts hitting three more threes, a Pearson bucket and four points from Swiezynski the lead grew to 48-41 with a little more than ten minutes left. From that point on, Nova did little right. After Drexel tied the score at 48, Nova finally got another score by isolating Pearson on the right side to back down her player for a ten foot banker to go ahead for the last tiem with 2:20 left in the game.
Drexel immediately tied it up and caused a turnover on the inbounds play. A stop by Nova gave us the chance to take the lead again, and another isolation play to Pearson resulted in an offbalance shot from the foul line that was rebounded by Drexel. After a time out, Drexel immediately got a bucket on a designed play and Nova was down 52-50 with only little more than a minute to play. A missed driving layup by Roberts and several foul shots by Drexel closed out the loss.
Only six turnovers in each half for Nova which was surprising as the Drexel press really had them on their heels for most of the game. On at least six occasions they actually broke the press downcourt for potential two on one breaks - on three occasions we pulled up, on the other three we were out of sync, Jones being too far under the basket to score, Kane intimidated by a closing defender and scooping up a shot instead of laying it in, Roberts flat out missing a layup, etc. Even when we took our time and got the ball up court against the press, the minimal remaining time didn't allow us to run any kind of offense and it showed in the execution.
Suhey did not play and Scanlon and Sweeney saw less than ten minutes so effectively we played with a small lineup most of the game. Roberts led with 16, Kane and Pearson both had 10. The 12 turnovers were evenly distributed and it certainly was a team effort as no one really stood out on either offense or defense. Just an excruciating final ten minutes to sit through.
It would not be surprising to see more teams pressing us in the upcoming schedule if that was any indication of our ability to deal with it. Kudos to Drexel and Denise Dillon on playing the game that they had to be beat Nova for the first time.