Dragons slowly out-pace Tigers, 80-65
Despite making over half of their shots from 3-point range and for a second-straight game seeing three players score in double digits, the Towson Tigers women’s basketball team suffered an 80-65 loss to the visiting Drexel Dragons on Friday night at SECU Arena.
Sianni Martin, Raine Bankston, and Etalyia Vogt were all 2-for-2 from 3-point range. Martin led the team with 15 points while Raven Bankston was just behind her with 14 points and Raine Bankston scored 11, but Drexel shot 51-percent from the floor and capitalized with 27 points off 17 Tigers turnovers to get the victory.
Meghan Creighton opened the game with a 3-pointer for the Dragons. Raven Bankston scored five of six-straight Towson points, including a completed three-point play, in response. But after that, Jessica Pellechio and Aubree Brown hit back-to-back 3-pointers for Drexel and the Dragons never trailed after that.
Towson did not let the Dragons just run away, but it was a slow and steady build for the Dragons.
Drexel led by only two points at the end of the first quarter, 15-13. The most they led by in the second quarter was eight points after a seven-point run; their biggest run of the first half.
It then took seven minutes into the third quarter before the Dragons led by double-digits after a Bailey Greenberg 3-pointer pushed them ahead of Towson 49-37. that lead was cut down to 10 points at the end of the quarter when Raven Bankston stole the ball from Pellechio and threw the ball over to Martin for a fast-break layup.
Including that layup, Towson used a seven-point run to make it a five-point game with 7:23 remaining in the game. Then after Sara Woods hit two free throws, Vogt nailed a 3-pointer to get the Tigers within four points at 55-51 with 6:45 remaining.
Then the Dragons started to tighten up on defense and hit even more of their own stride on offense.
A 3-pointer by Ana Ferariu put Drexel back up by seven points. Bailey Greenberg then stole the ball from Vogt and Ferariu finished the play with a layup on the other end.
A 3-pointer by Martin made up for some of the damage, but Brown made two free throws and then a 3-pointer to give the Dragons the 11-point lead. Towson had four turnovers in the last five minutes and 10 seconds. Ferariu hit two more three’s and a steal and fast-break layup to give Drexel a 73-58 lead with 2:12 left.
With the Tigers only hope of a comeback with little time left being to intentionally sent the dragons to the line, they needed then to miss some free throws, but in the final 67 seconds, Drexel went 7-for-8 as they kept ahead for the 15-point victory.
Towson will remain at home with a short turnaround as they host Northeastern on Sunday at 2 pm.
Corey Johns
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