PHILADELPHIA, PA – Despite their best performance from the field this year, the Hofstra women’s basketball team couldn’t get the win on the road against the Drexel University Dragons, falling 74-54 on Sunday, Jan. 12.
Hofstra falls to 3-11 on the season and remains winless in their first three games of Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) play. Jaylen Hines led the Pride in scoring with 17 points and the Pride shot over 50% from the field as a team for the first time this season.
After allowing the Pride to make their first two shots and take an early 4-2 lead, the Dragons started to catch fire, hitting three three-pointers en route to an 11-2 run in the middle of the quarter, taking a lead they never relinquished.
Drexel excelled from beyond the arc. They attempted eight three-pointers in the first quarter alone and 20 for the whole game. Even if they missed their threes, the frequency of attempts forced the Pride to focus their defensive efforts on the perimeter. The spacing allowed Drexel to work the ball inside effectively, which helped their senior frontcourt tandem of Mariah Leonard and Bailey Greenberg combine for 24 points.
Facing a 12-point deficit at the end of the first quarter, the Pride started to bounce back in the second. Hines scored six of her 17 points as part of a 10-2 run that cut the deficit in half to just six points. Unfortunately for the Pride, costly turnovers paved the way for Drexel to regain their momentum, going on a 16-4 run to end the half up 41-23.
The Pride struggled to string together runs, in part because of their turnovers. The defense of Drexel suffocated the Pride, forcing them to give up a season-high 25 giveaways. Additionally, the Pride couldn’t recover from the turnovers on the defensive end, allowing 28 points off these plays. These turnovers severely limited the amount of the possessions the Pride had. They took 17 fewer shots than the Dragons did and gave Drexel even more opportunities to extend their lead.
“[We] want it, but we can’t allow that to overcome the things we know how to do,” said Hofstra head coach Danielle Santos Atkinson. “We did some things that were a little bit out of character, and we got rushed. We just needed to take our time and be able to execute.”
The momentum stayed in Drexel’s corner for the second half, as they extended their lead to a game-high 25 points in the fourth quarter and never allowed the Pride to get the lead below double-digits again.
“[Our players] did a great job of staying in it,” Santos-Atkinson said. “I think when they saw that lead stretch one more time back to the 20-point mark, it got tough. After that, we had some things snowball and [Drexel] was able to get some things on the offensive end.”
Despite shooting over 50% as a team for the first time this season, that success never translated beyond the three-point line. The Pride made only three three-pointers, shooting 27 percent.
Ana Hernandez Gil was the only member of the Pride to hit a three, and only one other player, Sorelle Ineza, attempted one. When facing a large deficit with limited possessions, three-pointers are integral to a comeback. With the combination of three-point struggles and turnovers, the Pride couldn’t get themselves in a good enough position to get the game back within range.
“We got up really good shots and shot them with confidence, and we were able to hit them,” Santos-Atkinson said. “We just didn’t get up the amount of shots we needed to.”
The Pride get their next chance to earn their first conference win at home on Friday, Jan. 17, against the College of William and Mary Tribe.
Photo Courtesy of Hofstra Athletics
