Who knew that Dragons could go on long runs?
Penn women’s basketball fell 72-55 to Drexel on Wednesday at Daskalakis Athletic Center. The Quakers’ (2-1, 0-0 Ivy) first real test of the season was also their first game in Big 5 pod play. Last year, the Quakers dropped both of their pod games. This season, they failed to make the most of the first opportunity against the Dragons (3-0, 0-0 CAA), who were powered by guard Amaris Baker’s 18 points.
The game marked Penn’s first loss to Drexel since 2014. Junior point guard Mataya Gayle scored a team-high 13 points.
Here's what we saw from Penn's blowout loss across the street:
A first-half unraveling
Early in the match, Drexel led Penn 10-9 before the Quakers took a timeout. This break would sway the momentum in favor of the Dragons. After the timeout, Drexel went 4-for-4 from three until the end of the first quarter, which pushed their lead to 27-13.
“They just got away from us, … they had some amazing shots, we didn’t respond. … We couldn’t stop it,” coach Mike McLaughlin said. “It's part of the sport, … but you can’t let something go that far, it’s hard to get back. We started trying to change the defense a little bit, but the issue was on the offensive side.”
The Quakers’ offense fully unraveled in the second with a junior center Tina Njike free throw being the only Penn points of the quarter. The Quakers shot 0% from the field. To add insult to injury, Penn garnered 12 turnovers in the first half.
“Their 2-3 [defense] kind of gave us a struggle. We were definitely disrupted by their matchup, that was … our biggest issue of the game,” Gayle said. “It really messed up our offensive flow. We couldn’t get many shots up in that first half.”
Three-pointers — one team hot, one not
On an evening where the Quakers took a long time to get going from three, Drexel’s players had the hot hands. The Dragons went 9-for-18 from the three-point line.
Penn initially did little to stop this from happening, failing to change to a zone defense that left the Dragons with too many open looks. The opportunities were spread evenly among the Drexel players, with four players scoring two or more three-pointers. Penn went 6-for-28 from three, after not scoring on any of their 11 attempts in the first half.
“Credit to them, they’re a very talented team. I think they were like 50-something percent from the three, which … the first half, we weren’t contesting as hard as we could have,” Gayle said. “They made a lot of contested hard shots.”
The Baker and McGurk show
Drexel guards Amaris Baker and Laine McGurk largely contributed to the Dragons’ convincing wins. After taking turns in the first two games, McGurk scored 33 points in the season opener and Baker 27 in the second game of the season; they combined for 30 points to take down the Quakers on Wednesday evening.
Baker’s fast breaks and an essential steal helped the Dragons pull away in the first half, while McGurk shot 67% from three.
“Laine puts the work in, and she has since day one,” Drexel coach Amy Mallon said. “It’s something she does every day in practice, so seeing her do it in games is, for me, I’m just proud as a coach.”
Penn looks to rebound from this loss on Saturday at Hofstra. The Quakers will get the chance to improve their 0-1 Big 5 pod record on Nov. 24 against St. Joe’s in the Palestra.
