A lot can change in a quarter.
A 33-26 Drexel advantage at the end of the first half suddenly ballooned to a 15-point lead close to the end of the third quarter. The Red Foxes could not dig themselves out of that hole and fell to Drexel in the Dragons’ home opener, 62-47.
Since dropping their first meeting in the 2021-22 season, Drexel has rattled off four straight victories against Marist. They did not struggle in Monday night’s victory, as they led for close to 38 minutes. The Red Foxes took the lead only once, in the first quarter, and held it for 22 seconds.
Senior guard Julia Garcia Roig was the standout performer for the Dragon offense, slashing her way to 14 points and seven assists in 34 minutes of action. Drexel saw multiple contributors across their lineup: five Dragons logged eight or more points, with senior guard Laine McGurk leading all scorers with 15.
Despite a game that was in reach at the end of the first half, Marist’s offense slowly lost its wheels; hot three-point shooting cooled off, 1-on-1 shotmaking stagnated, and turnovers climbed.
A common trend in most of their losses over the past few years, the Red Foxes lost the turnover battle, this time racking up 13 giveaways to Drexel’s six. The Dragons managed to spread the ball around to the tune of 14 assists, but Marist finished with a negative assist-to-turnover ratio, with 10 assists.
Marist head coach Erin Doughty rolled out a smaller lineup to start, tweaking with personnel as the game developed. As she’s stated previously, her lineups are yet to be fully set in stone, and valuable time in these out-of-conference games will be used to further solidify her five starters.
But once again, the rebounding problem looks to loom above Doughty as it has in seasons past. Marist posted 25 rebounds, 13 short of Drexel’s 37 – 10 of which were on the offensive glass. Turnovers combined with struggles on the glass make any win hard to come by, no matter how efficient the offense looks.
As part of her new five, Doughty gave freshmen forwards Ryan Oldaker and Madison Ohm the start. Both logged over 25 minutes, and Oldaker was excellent – leading Marist scorers with 12 points and adding a hat trick of three-pointers.
The home team threw the first punch, jumping out to a 13-6 lead behind 6-of-8 shooting before the first media timeout.
Marist settled in, holding Drexel to one point in the final four minutes of the first quarter, as they narrowed the deficit down to three at 17-14, and that was as close as the gap got for the remaining 30 minutes.
Sophomore forward Justine Henry started 2-of-2, but Drexel quickly adjusted in the second quarter, jostling for position in the middle of the floor and swarming on the catch – forcing multiple turnovers and holding Henry to three-straight misses in the period.
Henry, the unanimous preseason Metro all-conference selection, finished with nine points on 4-for-11 shooting and three turnovers.
Neither team’s defense looked particularly sharp in the first 20 minutes, as frequent communication breakdowns on both ends resulted in easy twos. Drexel logged 16 of their 33 first-half points from inside the paint, not far from Marist’s 14.
When the Dragons distanced themselves late in the third quarter, piecing together a 9-0 run over three minutes, Doughty called a timeout — the first from either side — as the lead swelled to 14.
Marist failed to make a dent in the fourth, shooting 4-for-11 in the final frame as the Dragons sailed to a 15-point victory.
The Red Foxes will hit the road again on Thursday, taking on Bryant as part of the Metro/America East Challenge. Tip-off is set for 6 p.m.
Edited by Jack Tomasi
Graphic and Photo by Jaylen Rizzo
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