City of Basketball Love

By Josh Verlin (@jmverlin)
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(Ed. Note: This article is part of our 2024-25 season coverage, which will run for the six weeks preceding the first official games of the year on Nov. 4. To access all of our high school and college preview content for this season, click here.)

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Drexel’s women learned a valuable lesson last season: 

It’s never too late to turn it around.

In the span of a month, they went from the doldrums of a mediocre season to the NCAA Tournament. It’s a lesson Amy Mallon hopes her team doesn’t forget anytime soon, especially in the program’s first year in the Big 5.

“I told the team all the time,” the fifth-year head coach said, “‘I keep telling you that you can do this. Not because I said so; it’s because you can.’”

With three starters and four of their top five starters back in the fold, joined by three impact transfers and a trio of talented freshmen, these Dragons don’t have to be told. They know they can do it again.

“Everything that we went through,” senior guard Amaris Baker said, "we have that experience and know what it takes. We know that it gets hard, but all the work that we put in will definitely pay off.”

There’s a strong collective memory of what went down eight months ago.

A couple days after last Valentine’s Day, a 51-48 loss to Towson dropped Drexel to 10-12 on the season, 5-6 in Coastal Athletic Association play. 

From that point forward, the Dragons flipped a switch.

They won five of their next seven to enter the CAA tournament as the No. 7 seed, then won three straight in the nation’s capital to earn the league’s automatic bid to the NCAA Tournament for the second time in four years. 

A blowout loss to No. 1 seed Texas in the opening round of March Madness didn’t erase all the positives that built up before it. 

Baker, the team’s leading scorer a year ago (11.7 ppg), is back for her second and final year at Drexel after previous stops at Kennesaw State and Harcum College. The 2024 CAA Tournament MVP, Baker scored 19 points in the league title win, her return to the Division I landscape plenty of proof that she belonged at that level.

“People look down on JUCO but that’s one of the best opportunities in the world,” she said. “Getting a scholarship here at Drexel, being close to home, with family, definitely was one of the biggest blessings that I’m forever grateful for.”

Also back from last year’s starting lineup are 6-0 senior Chloe Hodges (8.6 ppg, 5.1 rpg) and 5-7 junior Grace O’Neill (5.1 ppg, 5.3 rpg), Mallon calling the Archbishop Carroll grad “the anchor of the program.”

That’s a strong trio to start with, but there are significant pieces to replace.

Brooke Mullin (10.2 ppg) and Hetta Saatman (4.9 ppg), both of whom exhausted their fifth year of eligibility, are gone from last year’s starting lineup. Reserves Jasmine Valentine (5.3 ppg) and Erin Sweeney (5.0 ppg) graduated as well, and Momo LaClair (3.2 ppg) transferred to UMass. 

The two open starting spots are likely to go to newcomers, as Mallon’s brought in some real experience through the transfer portal. Up front, she added a pair of 6-2 forwards in sophomore Deja Evans (Albany) and junior Molly Lavin (American), who should play the majority of the minutes at the ‘5.’

Evans, an Archbishop Wood grad, averaged 8.1 ppg, 7.1 rpg and 1.6 bpg while starting 29 games as a freshman at Albany last season. She gives the Dragons a shot-blocking presence they haven’t had since 2013 grad Nicki Jones, part of Drexel’s NIT championship squad.

“They didn’t really have a big inside presence last year for their team,” Evans said, “and it’s very new but [...]I feel like we’re going to be really good. We’re definitely a great transition team, we love to run and we’re working on our defense right now but I think we could be a really great defensive team.

“I definitely missed home and I’m excited to play in Philly, play against a lot of people that I played with growing up,” she added. 

In the backcourt, Holy Cross graduate transfer Cara McCormack brings 63 starts of her own (95 appearances) to the table, starting 48 games the last two years as Holy Cross won back-to-back Patriot League championships. The 5-3 combo guard averaged 10.9 ppg, 3.5 rpg and 3.0 apg as a senior, shooting 33.0% from 3-point range; she’s hit about a third of her triples each of the last three years. 

Having McCormack, O’Neill and Baker in the backcourt doesn’t give Mallon a ton of size, but it does give her three more-than-capable ball-handlers who can play in various spots on the perimeter.

“I think they’re all so versatile, the three of them,” Mallon said. “Having all three of them on the floor is something that I see happening at the same time. One thing we’re able to do now is transition, get the ball up the floor.”

Providing a scoring spark once again will be Laine McGurk, whether she does so off the bench or starting at the ‘3' spot. The Rustin product finished fourth on the team in scoring last year (6.4 ppg) despite averaging only 13.1 mpg in her 29 appearances, hitting the 20-point mark twice amongst seven double-digit outings. 

The biggest unknown comes from a trio of freshmen: 5-10 wing Emilee Jones (Grand Prairie, Tex.), 6-0 forward Iriona Graveley (Williamstown, N.J.) and 6-0 wing Mariah Watkins (Rochester, N.Y.). Watkins, whose younger sister Bria Watkins is committed to Drexel in its 2025 classes, was the most college-ready of the three before she tore her ACL going into her senior year at Webster Schroeder (N.Y.); she’s yet to return to the court, and it’s unclear whether she’ll play this year or take a redshirt. 

Mallon praised Jones’ shooting abilities and Graveley’s effort in the post, but both have uphill battles to see major minutes this season due to the veteran top seven.

Drexel’s first public appearances come in the form of two home exhibition games, Oct. 19 against Iona and Oct. 26 against Lafayette. The season opens Nov. 7 at home against Marist, with the first Big 5 contest Nov. 13 at home against La Salle, followed by Nov. 23 at Temple and the Big 5 Classic at Villanova on Dec. 6. Penn State (Nov. 27) and Florida (Dec. 15) are two big-time road contests, with the CAA slate starting Jan. 3 with a rivalry game against Delaware. 

While the Dragons are hoping for a better non-conference showing, all that really matters is how they’re playing come February and March.

That’s something Drexel’s women know all too well.