By Kevin Carroll – Staff Writer
In a game where offense was hard to come by, Hofstra used a monster performance from freshman phenom Ashunae Durant to power them to a 53-52 victory over Drexel University on Friday night in Philadelphia.
Durant scored 21 points and grabbed 17 rebounds, both career bests, to propel the Pride past the Dragons, in Hofstra’s second consecutive overtime victory. Durant had a big night in a game where neither team could get it going offensively. Both teams shot right around 31 percent from the field, and both squads were plagued by turnovers throughout the contest.
The first half was all Hofstra, as the Pride scored the first bucket of the game on an Elo Edeferioka layup, and stayed on top of the Dragons for the rest of the half. While the Pride offense may have struggled, the defense was spectacular in the first half, not allowing the Dragons to get to the free-throw line at all. Durant had a quiet start to the night, going without a field goal for the most of the first half, but she eventually found her rhythm, and scored 9 points in the period.
Drexel hung with the Pride, however, never letting the lead grow past six, despite a poor team performance on offense. The Dragon defense played just as well as the Pride’s defense, forcing multiple turnovers, and blocking numerous shots to keep them in the game. Hofstra took a slim 22-18 lead going into halftime.
The second half proved to be much more exciting than the first, as both offenses seemed to wake up, and start making shots. In particular, Kelly Loftus, leading scorer for the Pride this season, hit all twelve of her points in the second half, on four three-pointers. Drexel hung with the Pride every step of the way, and took their first lead on the game’s first three-pointer with 14 minutes left to play.
From then on, it was a back-and-forth affair, as the two teams swapped the lead 8 times, and tied 7 times. Two back-to-back triples from Loftus put the Pride up by 6, but the Dragons clawed back, getting into the double-bonus, and making several clutch free-throws down the stretch. Drexel had a three point lead in the waning seconds of the game until a clutch three from Loftus tied it up at 48, and the game would head to overtime.
Overtime would prove to be just as electric and exciting as the second half, as the Dragons tried time and time again to put Hofstra away, but just couldn’t pull it off. A Durant layup put the Pride up 53-52 with 22 seconds left, and a big defensive stop sealed the deal for the Pride.
After the game, Coach Kilburn-Steveskey had praise for her star freshman. “Yeah, it was a big one for her,” the coach said of Durant. “She takes notes to the physicality she has to play at this level. I told her she was a gamer.”
With the win, the Pride improved to 10-4 on the season, and remained unblemished in CAA play, with a 3-0 mark. Drexel falls to 8-6, and suffers their first conference loss, at 2-1.
The Pride will stay out on the road for their next matchup, as they head to Maryland to take on Towson University on Sunday, at 2:00, at the SECU Arena.
