City of Basketball Love

By Josh Verlin (@jmverlin) +
Kassidy Ingram (@ingram_kassidy)
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Drexel University women’s head coach Amy Mallon was happy to make history.

Mallon has been around the Big 5 as a player and assistant at St. Joe’s, but never got the chance to compete in the city’s long-running hoops series in her 21 years with the Dragons.

She and her Dragons made the first one count. 

Drexel’s first Big 5 contest was one to remember, as the three-time CAA champions defeated La Salle 73-40. It was the 43rd meeting between the teams, but one unlike any other.

The Dragons’ women's team was officially welcomed to the Big 5, in its 44th year on the women’s side, this past June. It comes a year after the men’s team made the same move, the city’s series going from a round-robin affair to a pod-structured tournament with a tripleheader to take place in early December.

With the new format Villanova, Saint Joseph’s and Penn are in one pod; Drexel joins the second pod made up of the Dragons, Temple, and La Salle. 

Now in her fifth season as head coach, Mallon mentioned how exciting it was for the program in becoming a part of the Big 5 — and how it’s a chance to contend for another title.

“I’ve been here 20 seasons now and have played teams that are in the Big 5, so just to have that opportunity as a coach now, to coach Drexel to their first Big 5 win, it means the world to me,” Mallon said. “My team was really happy, too, to get me my first win as a head coach in the Big 5. For us to have this moment, have it here, and have it at home, it’s really special.”

“I think the best thing about the Big 5, you can contend for another title in your season, and any player that has an opportunity to contend for any title is something they’re going to be excited about, and what we strive to do,” Mallon said.

They were welcomed by their home crowd with blue and yellow streamers after the first official Big 5 bucket by Deja Evans. 

“We talked about the tradition and being able to do the streamers tonight, after our first basket, just a moment for us to celebrate something that we’ve been waiting for,” Mallon said. 

Senior Amaris Baker led the way for the Dragons from the beginning of the game, scoring 10 points in the first quarter alone. After a 21 point game against Marist last week, she finished the night with 22 points on 7-of-16 shooting and 7-of-8 from the free-throw line, leading all scorers.

The Dragons finished 40.3% from the field and 36.4% from beyond the arc, as well as finishing with a notable 22 assists on the 25 made shots.

“That was the first thing I said to the team when we walked in the locker room, that stat, the 22 assists on 25 shots, we play team basketball, so we want to trust everybody we give the ball to has the ability to make the pass or make the shot, I think that shows that,” Mallon said. 

Evans added 14 points for Drexel (2-0), which got 10 points from senior Chloe Hodges and a five-point, 10-rebound, seven-assist effort from junior point guard Grace O’Neill.

The Explorers scored the first bucket. The Dragons never trailed again. 

Going into halftime, Drexel’s edge was led 33-16. They held the Explorers to a scoring drought for nearly 4 minutes before the buzzer sounded. Baker scored 15 of her 22 points before the half on 5-of-9 shooting and 4-for-4 from the foul line.

They will face their other pod opponent Temple at the Liacouras Center later in the month on November 23. 

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Baker off to a hot start

There were signs that Amaris Baker was ready for a big-time senior year. 

The Cardinal O’Hara grad averaged 11.7 ppg as a junior — still enough to lead a balanced DU attack, but not anywhere near the national scoring leaderboards. But she heated up down the stretch, earning the Coastal Athletic Association Tournament MVP award as she averaged 19.8 ppg during the Dragons’ four-game run to the 2024 CAA title. 

That was part of a closing 12-game run where Baker averaged 16.5 ppg, finding the form that made her one of the best scorers in JUCO basketball as a sophomore at Harcum College. After making only 26.7% of her 3-pointers in the first 22 games of the season (9.1 ppg), she caught fire, going 43.8% from deep (14-of-32) to close out the year. 

All that momentum is carrying right into 2024-25. Baker opened her final collegiate campaign with a 21-point outing and then topped that by a point on Wednesday, giving her 43 points through two games. She’s scored in double figures in 14 straight games, and doesn’t show any signs of slowing down. 

Most impressively, she was doing it within the flow of the offense, six of her seven baskets coming via assists. 

“Last year, I think you really saw what you knew she was capable of in that last run we made, but I think it really clicked where she was seeing where she could get her shots and get her looks,” Mallon said. “I think you’re going to see more consistent scoring and at a different level; she’s playing with teammates that understand what she’s capable of doing, so I think you’re going to see her getting those passes from her teammates.”

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Deja Evans (with ball) had 14 points, hitting double figures for the first time in a Drexel uniform. (Photo: Josh Verlin/CoBL)

Dragons look to the post

In her second game as a Dragon, sophomore forward Deja Evans finished in double figures for the first time, the Archbishop Wood grad going for 14 points, along with five rebounds and three blocks in 20 minutes of action.

Multiple Drexel guards did a good job of feeding Evans around the rim, the 6-foot-2 forward doing a good job of establishing position inside and finishing, going 5-of-6 from the floor and 4-of-6 from the foul line. 

“It’s a big difference-maker, just her in the middle, it opens up so many other things for us,” Mallon said. “Defensively, the presence to block shots, it’s going to deter some of those drives from opposing teams; and then it also from an offensive standpoint, her ability to score on the clock, to catch some of those lob passes and really just finish. 

“I think you’re going to see more and more of Deja Evans doing that at a high level for us as we continue to get comfortable playing together.”

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Notes & Quotes

— Nobody on La Salle scored more than six points. Nine different Explorer players scored, all between two and six points.

— Drexel freshman Iriona Gravley (Williamstown, N.J.) got her first collegiate action and first collegiate bucket, scoring on a layup in the fourth quarter. Later in the fourth, freshman Emilee Jones got her first college minutes, connecting on a pair of foul shots and then a 3-pointer to finish with five points and two rebounds. 

— La Salle juniors Alisa Blalock and Ivy Fox got their first minutes of the season, as did freshman Sania Jenkins. Blalock had the most productive run of the group, the 5-6 guard and D-II Caldwell (N.J.) transfer contributing four points, two rebounds and two assists in nine minutes.

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Up Next
Drexel (2-0, 1-0) has a week off before a home contest next Wednesday (Nov. 20) against UC-Irvine (6:00 PM). The Dragons’ next Big 5 game will be on Nov. 23 at Temple.

La Salle (1-2, 0-1) travels down to Charlottesville (Va.) to take on the University of Virginia on Sunday (2:00 PM). The Explorers’ next Big 5 game is Dec. 1 at home against Temple.