CHARLESTON, S.C. – The College of Charleston women's basketball team put on a show for Homecoming weekend with the Drexel Dragons (15-6, 6-4) in town, and after a thrilling 40 minutes of back-and-forth action, it was the Cougars who prevailed 79-75 to rise to 7-15 on the season.
• Things looked precarious for the Cougars early on, as Drexel managed to balloon to a 12-4 lead through the opening five minutes. With their backs to the wall, CofC put together one of the most critical runs of the season, finishing out the quarter on a 14-0 spree to go up 18-14 after ten minutes.
• Action ebbed and flowed all throughout the remainder of the game, with no team ever pushing their respective leads to double-digits. Drexel won the second quarter to take a 34-30 halftime lead, with Sarah Curran leading all scorers with 15 points at that time. The Cougars responded by clamping down on her in the second half. She finished with 20 points on 7 of 22 shooting.
• After a roughly even third frame, the Cougars struck in the fourth to edge the lead further and further out. Timely baskets from
Tanisha Brown,
Darien Huff and
Nola Henry pushed the CofC advantage as high as eight before Drexel fully committed to intentional fouling in the final 90 seconds.
•
Tanisha Brown had one of the best games of her career, scoring 19 points on 8 of 10 shooting while adding six boards and more than doubling her career high in assists with seven.
Breanna Bolden was honored before the game for breaking the CofC Division I Era Career scoring record last weekend, and submitted a performance worthy of the occasion with 19 points, seven boards, four assists and four steals. That puts Bolden on a 10-game streak of submitting at least 10 points, seven rebounds and three steals in a game.
• The Cougars once again struggled in the turnover department 19-14, but a strong shooting night of 53.7% (29 of 54) from the field and 83.3% (15 of 18) from the line cured all that ailed them. Drexel was hyperactive from beyond the arc, shooting hitting 13 of a whopping 36 three-point attempts. Jessica Pellechio came alive with 7 of 16 from beyond the arc with seven rebounds in defeat. Every single one of her field goal attempts were from long range.
• The Cougars improve to 3-5 all-time against the Dragons, and have now won against Drexel in back-to-back seasons within the friendly confines of TD Arena. For Drexel, it was the first time since February 23, 2014 that the Dragons had scored more than 70 points in a game and lost.
"It was an overall good effort tonight," "We had a good balanced attack and did our job at the foul line. Our starting five did everything we asked them to do, whether it was rebounding the ball or contesting shots, and it showed. It means a lot to this group to be able to beat a great team like Drexel."
The Cougars remain at home to close out the weekend, and will face off with Towson on Sunday at 2 p.m.
