PHILADELPHIA (William & Mary Communications) - If only it were possible to throw out two crushing runs, William & Mary would have been in good position to win its second game in a row. Instead, Drexel came away with what, at least on paper, was an 82-58 win Saturday in Philadelphia.
The Dragons shot 61% from the floor, a good number of those makes coming in a pair of stretches that turned a tight game into 24-point blowout. The first was a 19-2 burst after W&M had scored the game's first five points. The second was a 15-2 run that bumped a 51-45 lead to 66-47 with 7:47 remaining.
"The big thing that happened in both of those was that we turned the ball over and gave up some easy baskets in transition," W&M coach Dane Fischer said. "That allowed them to create the lead in the first half and then do the same thing in the second half.
"Obviously, in the first half, we had a great response and were able to get ourselves right back in the game. In the second half, we couldn't get ourselves back. … We got a little bit unraveled offensively. We had guys trying to do too much, not sharing the ball like we need to."
Luke Loewe led the Tribe (3-6, 1-3 Colonial Athletic Association) with 16 points on 7-of-15 shooting. Freshman Yuri Covington had 15 (3-of-3 from deep) and five assists. Quinn Blair finished with 13.
Together, that trio accounted for 44 of the Tribe's 58 points.
As Fischer said, the Tribe was able to bounce back after that early run. After Drexel took a 19-7 lead with 11:10 remaining in the first half, W&M began finding its stroke on the offensive end.
After starting 4-of-13 from the field, the Tribe made eight consecutive shots and cut the Dragons' lead to 34-32 on Loewe's jumper with 1:03 left. Drexel pushed the lead to six at the break, and it was 51-45 with 13:20 remaining in the game.
From there, the Dragons made six of their next eight shots — four on layups, one on a dunk. The deficit swelled to 19.
"We had quite a few turnovers that really cost us," Fischer said. "That let them get out and run and score some easy baskets."
Drexel starters Camren Wynter, Zach Walton, T.J. Bickerstaff and James Butler were a combined 28-of-41 from the field. The Dragons outscored W&M 46-22 in the paint and 20-4 off turnovers.
"I thought they made a few tough shots," Fischer said. "Wynter was really good in the first half. I thought we guarded him pretty well, but he had some tough shots. In those runs they had, I thought they had a lot of easy ones.
"A lot of that was transition. They were laying the ball into the rim and shooting wide-open 3s. They're a good team. You can't give up shots like that."
Because of the CAA's scheduling format for this season, in which two teams play each other on back-to-back days at the same site, the rematch will be Sunday at 1 p.m. Maybe that favors a team that feels it let a game get away.
"I think it'll be really good for us to turn around and compete. We talked after the game, the last 12-to-14 minutes of this game were what really did us in. It's really important we don't let those 12-to-14 minutes carry over to tomorrow.
"For at least half of the game, we did some really good stuff and competed. We've got to be able to build on that for tomorrow."
