City of Basketball Love

By Owen McCue (@Owen_McCue)
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(Ed. Note: This article is part of our 2023-24 season coverage, which will run for the six weeks preceding the first official games of the year on Nov. 6. To access all of our high school and college preview content for this season click here.)

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There’s a certain archetype at the point guard spot Amy Mallon associates with some of the best Drexel team’s she’s been around.

Mallon, entering her fourth season as head coach and 17th on the Dragons’ bench, points back to Andrea Peterson as where that line began. The Archbishop Carroll product and current Neuman-Goretti girls coach was the floor general of the 2009 CAA title team. 

Others like Megan Creighton (2012-16), Aubree Brown (2015-20), Hannah Nihill (2017-22) and Maura Hendrixson (2018-23), four of the top five assists leaders in program history, have continued that pipeline of facilitators from the Philadelphia Catholic League. 

“You talk about gritty point guards and like Philly point guards, they fit,” Mallon said. “And they're all a little different but what they do (is similar) and they have all been on championship-caliber teams.”

Sophomore point guard Grace O’Neill is the next PCL guard in line to guide the Dragons.

The Archbishop Carroll product averaged 7.0 ppg, 5.1 rpg and 1.8 apg in her freshman campaign. She started 30 of the 31 games she played in, averaging 33.9 minutes per game. O’Neill ranked third on the team in scoring (7.0 ppg) and assists (1.8 apg) and first in rebounding (5.1 rpg) and steals (1.5 spg).

This season she will run the show.

“I think I learned a lot last year, but every day I come to practice, there’s more and more that I can learn,” O’Neill said. “It’s keeping that open mind and soaking everything in because you can never learn too much.”

O’Neill is well-versed in the tradition she is hoping to carry on at Drexel. 

She first watched her cousin Creighton, who ranks second at Drexel all-time in assists (557), suit up for the Dragons in third grade. O’Neill was in the locker room to celebrate with the team after their 2013 WNIT championship. 

Nihill, who is right behind Creighton at third (523) on the all-time assists list, was a player O’Neill looked up to in middle school. The O’Hara product was one of the stars of the Catholic League and the Comets Girls Under Armour Association program, where O’Neill played as well. She is back with the program as an assistant coach this season.

“Two really great characters for her to have been around, and I think that's who she wants to be,” Mallon said. “And I think that's the best compliment you can give to another player is you want to be like them. But also you see something they're doing, and you’re like, ‘I want to do that.’ I think that's how we get better.”

O’Neill’s top two college choices coming out of Carroll were both local, but she decided to head to University City instead of Hawk Hill. O’Neill’s familiarity with the program is part of the reason why. 

She had connections with Nihill, who was wrapping up her terrific Dragons’ career during O’Neill’s final season of high school ball, and former Patriots’ teammate Erin Sweeney, who is now a senior for the Dragons.

Before arriving on campus last summer, O’Neill wasn’t sure how big her role would be as a freshman. But when she started to play with the team in the preseason, she realized she needed to be ready right away.

Hendrixson, who ranks fifth on the program’s all-time assist list (459), became another Drexel floor general for O’Neill to look up to. She tallied 223 assists compared to 103 turnovers, ranking 28th in the country in assist to turnover ratio (2.3) last season. 

She and star Keishana Washington helped the freshman guard throughout her first season of college hoops, which ended with a 21-10 (13-5 CAA) mark, a share of the conference regular-season title and a WNIT trip.

“Kei and Maura really took me under their wing, along with Hetta (Saatman),” O’Neill said. “They really helped me learn some of the things that I probably wouldn’t have known: slides, plays. They helped me a lot on and off the court.”

Washington and Hendrixson won’t be on the court with her this season. The five-year vets finally exhausted their eligibility. She will have another familiar face in the backcourt in Harcum College transfer Amaris Baker.

Baker, a Cardinal O’Hara product, played with O’Neill for Competitive Edge as fourth graders. They were both part of the Comets Girls Under Armour Association program and were Catholic League rivals for three seasons.

“Grace runs around all the time,” Baker said. “She’s fast, running plays, being the point. It’s cool just playing together now again. Same thing.”

Last season, O’Neil tallied 55 assists compared to 29 turnovers, which would have ranked 68th nationally in assist to turnover ratio if she qualified. Her ability to take care of the ball will be a trait the Dragons hope to lean on once again this season.

She also displayed some of that grittiness Mallon associates with her point guards as the team’s leader in steals and rebounds.

There will be even more on her plate this season.

“I would almost just say building off what I had last year,” O’Neill said. “Something for me is using the controllables. Hustlings’s a controllable for me. Rebounding Is a controllable, taking care of the ball. All those things are things off my game last year that I think I can elevate going into this year.”

The Dragons’ latest floor general will continue to have plenty of familiar faces helping her during sophomore campaign.

O’Neill will have Nihill in her ear from on the sidelines and on the court with her in practice. Creighton, who coached her for a season in eighth grade, will be in the stands at the DAC watching as well.

A decade later, O’Neill, now a little taller at 5-foot-7, certainly wouldn’t mind being part of a championship celebration with Creighton once again.

“Meg’s like one of my best friends,” O’Neill said. “We’re like 10 years apart but I talk to her, see her every week. It’s just kind of cool, flipping roles almost.”