Dragons move on; Owls go home

Yes, it's the 50th anniversary season of the Big 5. But so far, Drexel has taken over the spotlight from the city's traditional basketball rivals.

Last night, a national television audience watched on ESPN2 as the Dragons took on Sam Houston State in the second round of the Preseason NIT. With a record crowd of 2,437 at the Daskalakis Athletic Center roaring all night, Drexel ran away from the Bearkats in the second half and won, 72-61.

The lights will shine even brighter on Bruiser Flint's team next Wednesday in the semifinals, as No. 1 Duke awaits at Madison Square Garden in New York.

Nonetheless, Flint stayed modest after the game.

"We've got Rider on Monday, so I'm not even worried about all that stuff that's coming," he said. "Duke puts their pants on just like everyone else does -- I've always taken that approach."

The first half was tight throughout, and the teams headed to the locker rooms tied at 33-33. That was the sixth tie of the half, and neither team took more than a seven-point lead in the first 20 minutes.

In the second half, Drexel jumped on Sam Houston State early, scoring 13 unanswered points. It took almost six minutes for the Bearkats to break the drought, which they did on a slam dunk by sophomore guard Chris Jordan.

Sam Houston State cut the deficit to five points with 4:28 to go on a pair of free throws by sophomore Ryan Bright -- an athletic, 6-foot-6 forward who was a force inside all night.

But it never got closer.

"It was Drexel's night," Bearkats coach Bob Marlin said.

Bright led all scorers with 21 points; he also recorded 12 rebounds, five assists, two blocks and three steals. Junior guard Bashir Mason was Drexel's top scorer with 18 points, including 5-of-9 three-point shooting.

Bright said he enjoyed traveling to play in the NIT, both at Missouri in the first round and Drexel.

"It was a lot of fun to come here and get a week off of school," the Deer Park, Texas, native said. "I don't think I've ever been this far north before, and Philadelphia's a very historical city."

At the end of the night, the Drexel students started chanting "We want Duke!" and some rushed the floor when the final horn sounded.

NOTE: Marlin took his team on a tour of the Palestra yesterday afternoon. He said that he is good friends with Fran Fraschilla, a longtime coach who is now an analyst for ESPN, and that Fraschilla encouraged him to visit Penn's home arena with his players.

"He called me Monday night and said you've got to take your kids to the Palestra, it's like a miniature Allen Field House," Marlin said. "There's a lot of great history in this city and in that building. It was definitely one of the highlights of the trip -- if not the highlight now."

UCLA denies Temple a trip to the Big Apple

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Arron Afflalo scored 18 points and No. 18 UCLA squelched Temple's second-half surge for a 54-47 victory in a second-round Preseason NIT game last night

The Bruins (2-0) advanced to next week's semifinals at New York's Madison Square Garden. They'll play No. 12 Memphis, an 87-76 winner over No. 15 Alabama.

The Owls (1-1) were led by Mardy Collins with 15 points.

Temple has not lost since 1995 when it holds opponents under 50 points, and UCLA didn't clear that mark until the game's final three minutes. It was its fewest points since a 64-51 loss to California in January.

Tyndale finished with six points and Salisbery went scoreless.

The Owls came out of halftime trailing by 15, and quickly got back into the game with a 19-9 run to start the second. Collins scored nine points as Temple trailed 42-37 with 9:18 remaining.

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