City of Basketball Love

Jeff Griffith (@Jeff_Griffith21)
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Following his team’s loss to Iona on December 28, their final game in 2015, Drexel forward Rodney Williams knew something needed to change.

He made just two field goals that night, and fouled out with eight points, in a 77-70 loss.

“After the Iona game, I just looked at myself in the mirror and said ‘Rod, what are you doing wrong, what are you doing not to help this team?’” Williams said. “I saw that my energy was down so, I said ‘you know what, let’s just start this conference season off--it’s a new season for us--playing with the best amount of energy that I can. That’s all I’ve been doing, I’ve been working on scoring the ball, taking charges, playing good defense, and I want to keep that up for my team, I want to lead by example.”

Williams wasn’t the only one who needed to do some soul searching as the calendar flipped to 2016. The entire team was struggling and not playing to its potential, and it showed in their dismal 2-9 record at the time.

For Williams, specifically, 2016 has been off to a great start; the junior forward had a career-high 19 points at Elon on January 2. His team took a few more games to get with the program, losing that game to Elon as well as another conference matchup with William & Mary.

However, Saturday against the College of Charleston Cougars, the Dragons finally played a full forty minutes, and walked out with their first CAA win--and their first win over a team with a winning record--by a final score of 61-54.

“We played well for the full forty minutes tonight. That’s why we won,” added Williams, who matched that career high with 19 points as well as three rebounds.

For a Drexel team that has seen several close games slip away, being able to play a complete game and hold on late was a sight for some very sore Dragon eyes. With that in mind, it’s not hard to see why the guys in blue and gold were all smiles as the clock winded down on their much-needed victory.

“I tell people a lot of times, ‘man, we must be the best 2-12 team in the country,’ like we’re always in close games, within four or five points, but today we did what we were supposed to do and we got the W,” Williams said of the constant late-game heartbreak.

While Drexel (3-12, 1-3 CAA) may not have played a flawless game of basketball, they played arguably the best they have all season, and never trailed after taking the lead towards the end of the first half.

“We needed one, you try to get them anyway you can,” said Drexel head coach Bruiser Flint. “I thought from beginning to end, this was one of our better games. We didn’t have one of those five minute stretches where we just threw it to everybody and went ballistic.”

The Dragons scored the first basket of the game, but allowed Charleston (10-4, 2-2 CAA) to score the next eight points. It took until the final two minutes of the first frame for Drexel to regain the lead--they would lead 31-28 at the half--and that was the advantage they would not relinquish.

The Cougars certainly didn’t make it easy, clawing within three in the last minute, but clutch late free throws were enough to seal it for Drexel.

“We hit our foul shots, we’ve got to execute a little bit better at the end of the game, but I thought our guys played with some patience, we didn’t go crazy, that’s one of the things that’s been happening to us,” said Flint. “We’ve been talking about it, we just haven’t been doing it.”

Charleston--who was without their leading scorer Canyon Barry (19.7 ppg) to a non-shooting shoulder injury--had seven different players with at least five points. The leading scorer was junior guard Payton Hulsey with eleven points.

Barry’s absence was certainly a hindrance to the Cougars, but they have shown an ability to find success without him, having recently taken down Hofstra with Barry sidelined.

“They’ve been playing well, I told Earl (Grant), I like his team, they play with toughness. They’ve got a lot of good young guys and they’ve been winning without Barry. I like them. I like their guys, but today I just thought we played better from beginning to end.”

Going forward, Flint’s Dragons have some tough tests ahead as the CAA schedule continues, and being able to play forty minutes like they did against Charleston will be key for Drexel to stay competitive in a wide-open league.

“I’ll tell you what, it just feels so great (to win),” Williams remarked. “You prepare, you work hard, and sometimes the ball doesn’t bounce your way, but when you finally pull together and do something right, it just feels great. Guys are really excited, so we just need to carry that over to next week, we’ve got two tough games coming up."