Freshman guard Anne Simon scored a team high and a career high 23 points on Monday evening, but Drexel got a game high 32 points from Bailey Greenberg to pull away from the Maine Black Bears 70-57 at the John Daskalakis Athletic Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in women’s non-conference basketball action.
A back and forth opening quarter saw both teams holding a three point lead at one point, and the game was tied 14-14 at the end of the first 10 minutes. Simon had nine of those 14 for the Black Bears. Maine (4-10) held a four point advantage twice in the second quarter, before the host Dragons of Drexel went on a 7-0 run to finish the first half on a three-pointer from Greenberg, and then layups from Keishana Washington and Greenberg to take a 32-29 halftime lead.
With Drexel (7-5) up by a point early in the third quarter, the Dragons went on an 18-6 spurt to build the biggest lead of the game to that point at 50-37 with 1:32 to go. Maine wouldn’t go away however. Down 12 early in the fourth the Bears would go on an 8-0 run that included a layup from Simon, and then back to back three-pointers by Dor Saar and Anna Kahelin to cut it to 53-49 with 7:16 to play. Drexel had the answer though as they did all evening with Greenberg. A 16-5 run put it away and had the Dragons up 15 with just 1:50 to play, with seven of the points from the senior forward. The hosts led by 16 very late, their largest of the night. Maine was without starting forward Maeve Carroll due to personal reasons, as well as Abbe Laurence and Sierra Tapley who are nursing knee injuries.
Simon added eight rebounds and two assists and shot 10-17 from the floor in the losing effort for Maine. Saar was the only other Black Bear in double figures finishing with 12 points, four rebounds, and three assists. The visitors shot 40% in the first half, but only 28% in the second in losing their second consecutive game after a last second win over Wisconsin-Green Bay. Greenberg shot 13-20 from the field, and added five rebounds, two assists, two blocks, and a steal for Drexel. Hannah Nahill added eight points, Kate Connolly had seven, and Washington finished with six.
Maine has now finished up non-conference play and will return home to host Hartford in the America East Conference opener Thursday night at 7 p.m. The Black Bears are the two-time defending champions and will face a Hawks team who is 0-13 so far this season.
