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Drexel/Bowling Green: Notes & Quotes (Nov. 10)

11/10/2017, 9:45pm EST
By Josh Verlin

Austin Williams (above) put up a double-double but Drexel fell to Bowling Green in its season opener on Friday night. (Photo: Mark Jordan/CoBL)

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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The first game of Drexel’s 2017-18 season looked quite similar to too many from last year -- solid play for the majority of a home game against Bowling Green, but ultimately one ugly stretch of hoops spelled disaster for the Dragons in a 78-69 loss to the Falcons.

Here are some thoughts, notes and quotes from the evening:

1. Isabell, Overton out for Drexel

The Drexel rotation was short two of its expected mainstays in the opener. Redshirt senior Miles Overton was held out with a calf strain that’s been bothering him in the preseason; Overton didn’t play in Drexel’s exhibition on Villanova on Nov. 1 for the same reason. Also out on Friday was redshirt junior Tramaine Isabell; the Mizzou transfer had started both of Drexel’s exhibition games -- they also played West Chester on Oct. 28 -- but sat on the end of the bench for what was deemed a “failure to meet a team standard.”

“Failure to meet a team standard, if you don’t do that, there’s consequences, part of the consequences is not playing in tonight’s game,” Drexel coach Zach Spiker said afterwards. “Pretty simple, straightforward.”

2. Familiar cold spell reappears

The first 24 minutes went quite well for Drexel (0-1), which was up 52-42 at the first media timeout of the second half, equaling the lead the Dragons held at halftime.

The next six minutes belonged entirely to Bowling Green (1-0), and that was enough to change the entire outcome. The Falcons went on a 19-0 run to flip a 10-point deficit into a nine-point advantage with just under 10 minutes remaining, and played frontrunner from that point onwards.

Turnovers killed the Dragons over the course of the whole game, as they had 19 giveaways, but seven of them came during that stretch alone, along with 11 straight missed shots.

“19 turnovers is not good, those are 19 times that we don’t get Austin [Williams] the ball or a good look for our guards,” Spiker said. “Credit goes to Bowling Green, thought they played a very good second half with their personnel and they were able to make the last, biggest run. Certainly frustrating, but credit goes to them.

“We’re going to make mistakes, we’re not going to play a perfect game,” Spiker added later. “Let’s just make new mistakes, not make the same ones over and over, and we’ll be a better basketball team when March comes around.”

3. Spiker gets young bigs in early

Senior forward Austin Williams got the start, as expected, and the 6-8 big man put up a career-best 18 points to go along with a career-high tying 12 rebounds in the first game of his final season.

But the first reserve big off the bench wasn’t Williams’ classmate Tyshawn Myles, who will be his backup at center; it was 6-9 freshman Jarvis Doles, who came in at the ‘4’ position to spell sophomore Sam Green, a 6-6 wing. Tadas Kararinas, a 6-10 freshman from Lithuania, also made his first appearance of the season before Myles finally entered the game later in the first half.

“The game determines who plays, it’s not like you come in saying we’re going to play this guy or that guy,” Spiker said. “And when you get in a boatload of foul trouble…”

Green struggled with fouls, playing 22 minutes before fouling out.

Kararinas and Doles each hit one 3-pointer as their only points on the evening; they each also grabbed two rebounds. Doles played 13 minutes before fouling out; Kararinas played 16 minutes.

4. Plowden impresses in BGSU debut

Bowling Green’s trip to Philadelphia was the return home for one of its freshman.

Daeqwon Plowden was one of the city’s more under-the-radar stars over the last few years, playing his high school ball at Mastery Charter North in the lower levels of the Public League. But the 6-5 wing helped lead the Pumas to a state championship game appearance as a junior and finished his prep career as the first in his school’s history to score 1,000 points.

Plowden didn’t earn the start in his first collegiate game, but he didn’t take long after entering the game five minutes in to make an impact. Plowden’s first collegiate shot, a right-wing 3-pointer, went down smooth. Several minutes later, he added an impressive right-hand finish in traffic before coming up with a steal and slam to electrify the BGSU faithful in attendance.

With most of his production coming during that early stretch, Plowden finished with nine points and three rebounds to go along with a block and a steal in 18 minutes of action.

“I thought Daeqwon played exceptionally well tonight,” BGSU coach Michael Huber said. “He’s done a great job, is coming along real smooth and the sky’s the limit for him. I’m very pleased what he brings to the table, and he brings energy every day, it’s relentless.”

Though Plowden played well, he didn’t have the best outing by a BGSU rookie. Justin Turner, a 6-4 redshirt freshman out of Detroit, exploded for a game-high 33 points on 12-of-29 shooting, hitting 4-of-7 from behind the arc, to go along with seven assists and four boards.

5. Harper’s cramps hamper first Drexel game

Troy Harper played 26 minutes in his official Drexel debut, though the Campbell transfer and Neumann-Goretti product was limited due to cramps that first appeared in the first half and continued into the second.

A bouncy 6-3 guard, Harper finished with eight points but was 1-of-11 from the floor, including 0-for-4 from 3-point range. He did get to the line a team-leading eight times, making six of his freebies.

“He brings an attacking element that we need, and certainly we like to see a few more shots fall,” Spiker said. “We have to go back how many of those were good drives compared to 3s and whatnot.”


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