City of Basketball Love

Corky Blake (@corkyblake)
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EASTON — The Drexel men’s basketball team was in desperate need of a spark, something to shake the Dragons out of the doldrums that had them trailing Lafayette by three two minutes into the second half at Kirby Sports Center on Weednesday night.

Enter backup 6-foot-8 junior forward Garfield ‘GT’ Turner.

Turner subbed in for preseason Coastal Athletic Association Player of the Year Amari Williams, who collected his third foul on an illegal screen at the 17:47 mark. By the time Williams returned with 12:15 to go, Drexel was ahead by nine and well on its way to a 69-48 victory and a jolt of momentum heading into Saturday’s Big 5 Classic clash with Villanova at the Wells Fargo Center.

“Coming off the bench I try to bring energy and do what I do,” Turner said. “They told me to go hard at both ends of the court.”

During that decisive span, Turner grabbed a pair of offensive rebounds, the latter of which he converted into a layup off a Luke House miss. He registered a steal and performed the subtle tasks that aren’t tallied in the boxscore but are noticed by coaches, including Lafayette’s first-year head man Mike McGarvey.

“(Turner) gave them great minutes,” McGarvey said. “He made his layups, was on the glass and played great defense, especially against our ball screens.” 

Turner played nearly 21 minutes, shot 3-for-3 (he’s 19-for 23 for the season), made 3-of-4 free throws for his nine points and shared team-high honors with seven rebounds. He was a team-best plus-21 for the game.

“My coaches and teammates tell me to keep working hard,” said Turner, who’s averaging nine points and five rebounds over his last four games.

Senior guard Lamar Oden Jr. kick-started Drexel’ sluggish offense into gear after the Dragons managed only 21 points in the first half against the Leopards, whose only win in eight games is over Division III Wilkes. Oden started the 15-3 run with a 3-point play. Justin Moore went coast-to-coast for a layup. Turner contributed his basket, Oden splashed his second 3-pointer of the half, Lucas Monroe converted a follow-up into a three-point play and Jamie Bergens ended it with a pull-up jumper in the lane.

Drexel came into the game shooting just 25-for-111 (23 percent) from beyond the arc with House the “sharpshooter” at 39 percent (9-for-23). That disturbing trend continued over the first 20 minutes as the Dragons shot 1-for-10 from 3-range and 8-for-25 overall.

In retrospect, Oden’s first 3-pointer of the second half probably was just as critical to the win as Turner’s play off the bench. Drexel made 5-of-9 3s with Mate Okros converting on 4-of-5, including three in the second half.

“We got guys who can shoot them, like you saw with Mate Okros tonight,” Oden said. “I think sometimes you have to see the ball go in and then you have confidence the rest are going in.”

“I thought we defended pretty well tonight,” Drexel coach Zach Spiker said. “The difference was we made 3s (in the second half), we shot 58 percent. We’re putting the time in (shooting 3s), and I’m confident in our guys and happy for them when they have success from it. That’s a great locker room right now.”

Oden said little was said at halftime with the Dragons trailing 23-21.

“That was all on us,” Oden said. “We were playing back on our heels. We had to stay confident and bring the energy. We had to stay positive.”

Okros’ late flurry of 3s converted into a team-high 14 points. Oden finished with 11 points and 7 rebounds, and Williams added 10 points and 6 rebounds. Sophomore 6-6 guard Kobe MaGee, from nearby Allentown, contributed 8 points, 4 rebounds and a team-high 3 assists in 18 minutes of the bench.

The Dragons (4-3) now play No. 18 Villanova in the Big 5 Classic at 2 p.m., Saturday, at the Wells Fargo Center. Oden and the Dragons are pumped to try and secure their first Big 5 win after previous losses to La Salle and Temple by a combined eight points.

“I’m from (Douglasville) Georgia, and I played in the (Atlanta) Hawks’ place in high school,” Oden said referring to the 16,888-seat State Farm Arena. “I can’t wait. This is the first time for me (at the Wells Fargo Center). This is going to be fun. You always dream of playing in an NBA arena.”

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Learning lessons for the Leopards

McGarvey, the former Penn Charter and Ursinus star, is in his first season as Lafayette’s head coach. He was Mike Jordan’s top assistant last season. He became the acting head coach late in the season when Jordan was placed on leave and promptly led the Leopards into the Patriot League championship game against Colgate.

Now, McGarvey has another Penn Charter graduate running the point for him in freshman Mark Butler. The 5-10, 165-pounder has started every game for the Leopards and has been the catalyst to their vastly improved defense even though the team is 1-7.

“His on-ball defense, starting at 94 feet, and his assist to turnover ratio,” McGarvey said of Butler’s strongest attributes so far. “He’s top three or four in the Patriot League in assist to turnovers (25 to 10 entering Wednesday’s game) and steals.”

Against Drexel, Butler registered three assists and a steal to go against one turnover. His offense is still a work in progress. He’s 0-for-11 shooting 3s. 10-for-39 shooting overall and 10-for-21 from the foul line.

Another freshman from Philadelphia, 6-7 wing Joshua Wyche from Cristo Rey, collected four points and two blocks in 13 minutes off the bench.

“He gave us a spark tonight,” McGarvey said. “He’s backing up a senior, Kyle Jenkins, who’s played a lot of minutes for us. But Josh is about the right stuff and is making the most of his opportunities.”

TJ Berger of Westtown was going to be one of Lafayette’s top returnees, but the junior guard’s season ended early in the preseason when he suffered a knee injury. It was a difficult blow after the Leopards already had potential returning starters CJ Fulton transfer to College of Charleston and second-leading scorer Josh Rivera move on to Fordham.

“Losing TJ, he was one of our captains and a calming presence as a fourth-year player,” McGarvey said of Berger, who played at Georgetown and San Diego before coming to Lafayette last season. “A lot of things we were going to do on offense were built around him being in the lineup. 

Lafayette will host Cornell on Saturday afternoon, play at Columbia on Tuesday and then return home the following Saturday to meet La Salle, its fourth Big 5 opponent this season.