City of Basketball Love

Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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Zach Spiker has thrown the way he wants to play and practice out the window.

He doesn’t have a choice, not with an ever-shortening roster due to quite the run of injuries.

In Spiker’s perfect world, the Drexel program he’s in his second year of coaching would practice and play as fast as possible. But in a road game against La Salle on Thursday night, he was telling his star point guard Kurk Lee Jr. to slow it down and extend possessions as much as possible.

That’s the hand he’s forced.

“We’re coaching day by day and game by game right now,” Spiker said. “We’re going to take the cards that are dealt to us, and we’re going to do the best we can with who’s out there and who’s playing.”

Drexel’s stable of available players keeps getting shorter and shorter.

But so far, it hasn’t stopped the Dragons from winning games.

Despite a rotation that’s down to seven scholarship players, Drexel went into La Salle’s Tom Gola Arena and toughed out a 72-70 win over the Explorers on Thursday evening.

“The challenge to our guys was ‘how hard can you play for 40 minutes, knowing that some of you are going to play just about 40 minutes,’” Spiker said. “ [We’re] not going to feel sorry for ourselves with the roster the way it is.”

Lee and senior guard Sammy Mojica played the entire 40 minutes; Lee scored 23 points and grabbed eight rebounds, Mojica was just behind him with a 19-point, six-rebound outing. Austin Williams added 16 points and seven boards for the Dragons (5-4), who won for the third game in a row.

That Drexel was even able to hang with La Salle -- much less lead the entire game -- was stunning considering who it’s missing.

Four members of the Dragons rotation were sidelined due to injuries: Troy Harper (shoulder), Sam Green (knee) and Miles Overton (calf) were all known scratches, but they were joined by Tramaine Isabell, the team’s leading scorer, out with a foot problem.

It was already an injury situation that had the Drexel rotation as thin as any around. Without Isabell, who was averaging 22.0 ppg and had gone for a career-high 35 in Drexel’s win over Rider on Sunday, the situation looked dire.

Spiker was left with only two guards -- Lee and Mojica -- and five forwards on the roster, including a pair of freshmen and a sophomore JUCO transfer who was only playing his fourth career game.

And for one game, at least, it worked.

Despite having to start and play three forwards, including using 6-8 sophomore Alihan Demir at the ‘3’ in his first Division I start, Drexel was able to hold its own against a talented La Salle backcourt.

The Explorers shot 25-of-62 (40.3 percent) overall and 9-of-27 (33.3 percent) from 3-point range, above their poor season average from deep but not nearly enough on this particular night.

“I don’t think if we had the full allotment of personnel, we would say (Tyshawn) Myles, why don’t you go guard one of the best players in the A-10,” Spiker said, alluding to the fact he had his 6-9 backup center had to at times guard La Salle senior wing B.J. Johnson, the Explorers’ leading scorer. “But we did tonight, and he did a great job on him.”

Drexel was a nifty 27-of-50 (54 percent) from the floor and 8-of-12 (66.7 percent) from 3-point range. The Dragons held a 42-26 advantage on the boards, and a 36-22 advantage on scoring in the paint.

Lee, like the rest of his teammates, hit seemingly everything he threw up at the rim, including a pair of banked-in 3-pointers in the first half -- and a two-point jumper as well  -- to help Drexel out to a 43-30 advantage at the half.

From that point, it was just a matter of hanging on.

The Explorers got within two points on several occasions, but were never able to take the lead as Drexel led for 38:30 following an early tie.

“I don’t think I’ve ever coached a game in my life where I was more surprised at so many things,” La Salle coach John Giannini said. “I was surprised at how little energy we had and how quickly we fatigued, I was surprised at how well they played without Isabell, I was surprised that we couldn’t guard (Lee) off ball screens...I’m surprised they banked in three shots including banking in two 3s. I’m surprised we didn’t play better.

“Really,” he continued, “there was nothing in this game I was not surprised by.”

WIth the victory, Drexel has more wins than losses for the first time since it was 2-1 just three games into the 2013-14 season. There wasn’t a single member of the Dragons’ roster who was around back then.

The Dragons’ scholarship seniors, Mojica and Williams, had spent their previous three seasons at no better than .500. The three-game win streak they’re now on is the longest since they won six in a row from Jan. 24-Feb. 10, 2015, during their freshman year.

Next up for Drexel is a trip out to the western part of the state to take on Robert Morris (5-4) on Sunday at 2 PM. La Salle (5-5) gets a Big 5 game against No. 4 Villanova (9-0) on Sunday at noon at the Wells Fargo Center.

It's not clear when Drexel's injury problems will start to resolve themselves. Spiker did not know how long Isabell's issue would keep him out -- he didn't even know until he got to Gola that he wouldn't have Isabell available that game. Green, Harper and Overton are all expected to miss several more weeks, though none have had an established timeline just yet; CAA conference play begins in just a few weeks, on Dec. 30 against Elon.

Until then, they'll just have to do what they can to keep it going.

"We’ve just got players that are ready to push through every game," Mojica said. "We’re down guys and we’re just ready to come and fight every day in practice, every game that we come to.”

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