By Sean Kennedy
Yesterday’s Action
Drexel 59, St. Francis (PA) 49
Against a very small Red Flash opponent, the Dragons controlled the battle of the boards by a 39-26 margin to edge out a victory Sunday afternoon. Chris Fouch and Frantz Massenat paced the offense with 15 and 13 points, respectively, while Kazembe Abif just missed a double-double with 9 points and 11 rebounds. The game was played at a very deliberate pace and Drexel could never could build a large lead, but the outcome never seemed in doubt with the way St. Francis struggled to score the basketball.
As noted by @jmverlin, St. Francis takes a lot of 3-pointers (43 percent of their shots) and Drexel is the 12th-best team in the country in 3-point defense. That fact combined with the size mismatch between the two teams unsurprisingly allowed the Dragons defense to stifle the Red Flash offensive attack. Dominique Major did his best to keep his team hanging around, shooting 5-10 behind the arc to finish with a game-high 16 points, but didn’t receive much help from his St. Francis teammates. Drexel will have a week off over the holiday break before hosting Buffalo next Sunday.
Marist 76, Pennsylvania 62
Playing without a couple key players, Penn fell into a huge first half deficit against Marist, losing for their fourth straight game. The Quakers were without Darien Nelson-Henry due to a concussion, and Miles Jackson-Cartwright came off the bench due to a left thumb injury. MJC played with the thumb wrapped up and committed 4 turnovers against 0 assists.
Marist shot 8-13 on threes in the first half, jumping out to a 23-point halftime lead. Khallid Hart led the way for the Red Foxes with a game-high 21 points, while no player on the Quakers even reached double figures. Tony Hicks continued to struggle with his shot, going just 4-12 for 9 points, while Fran Dougherty was the only Quaker showing signs of life with 9 points and 9 rebounds. The holiday break comes at the perfect time for Penn as they’ll look to get their guys healthy and figure out how to correct their recent difficulties. They’ll look to right the ship next Sunday at Rider.
Miami (FL) 71, La Salle 58
The Explorers stuck to the script Sunday afternoon by losing to another big-conference opponent in the Miami Hurricanes. La Salle fell behind by double digits in the first half, as some poor shooting held them back, particularly from leading scorer Tyrone Garland, who finished 1-7 from the field for just 3 points. Tyreek Duren kept La Salle hanging around with a game-high 18 points, and Steve Zack recorded a double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds.
As expected, the duo of Rion Brown and Garrius Adams paced the Hurricanes, combining for 30 points on 50% shooting. A Duren three brought the Explorers within seven with just outside of two minutes remaining in the game, but Brown scored 7 points from that point on, keeping any comeback ideas by La Salle far in the rear view mirror. It seems like a large enough sample size to know what the Explorers are at this point, a team good enough to beat lesser foes, but not talented enough to notch big victories once they face a quality opponent. They’ll next face someone from the former group when they take on city rival Penn in two weeks.
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