PHILADELPHIA– Drexel played its first city series game last night against Temple at 2,500- seat Dac, and the Dragons wanted to make a good impression during their introduction to life in its new social circle.
The Big 5 is now the City Six with Drexel, Temple, Penn, Villanova, St. Joseph’s and La Salle competing in a six-team tournament that will culminate with a triple header Dec. 2 at the Wells Fargo Center.
There were banners welcoming the Dragons lining Market St. and there was an air of excitement on this campus all week before the sold-out game that has historic significance because it was the first time Temple, which had played Drexel 14 previous times, had visited Drexel. After the Dragons scored the first field goal, the students threw a blizzard of blue and gold streamers onto the court, replicating an old Big 5 tradition, After officials whistled a technical, Temple refused the opportunity to shoot a free throw out of respect.
The Owls wound up winning the competitive game, 66-64, going 1-0 in its three- team pod. Drexel dropped to 0-2.,
But the Dragons who also lost a competitive 66-61 road game to La Salle, showed they belonged.
They came within a heartbeat of forcing overtime after sophomore guard Justin Moore from Archbishop Wood helped the Dragons slice into an eight-point deficit in the final 40 seconds with a three and a three-point play. Moore went to line for a two-shot foul with Drexel down three with four seconds to play. He made the first, then deliberately missed the second. Drexel’s 6-10 center Amari Williams, the pre-season CAA Player of the Year, grabbed the offensive rebound. But his follow rimmed out as time ran out, putting an end to some late drama.
Drexel, in reality should have been inducted into this fraternity long ago. The Dragons became a division 1 team 50 years ago. Since then, the Dragons have produced NBA players like Michael Anderson and Malik Rose under the late Eddie Burke in the 80s, gone to three NCAA tournaments and an NIT during the Billy Herrion era, four more NIT appearances and a 29-win season that included wins over Louisville and Villanova in 2012 under Bruiser Flint and a CAA championship and NCAA appearance under current coach Zach Spiker in 20022.
They were always second cousins until last spring when they received an official invite from the other ADs who felt the Big 5 round robin has gotten stale and wanted to change the format with some new blood.
Spiker, who has put the Dragons in position to make another run at an automatic bid in the CAA with some resourceful recruiting, plucking Williams out of Nottingham, England, identifying House, who played for Archbishop Carroll, as a transfer from California State University in Pennsylvania and signing Moore out of the Catholic League without any NIL money. Any one of them could step up. House had 20 points, six assists and four threes and Moore finished with 18 to offset the fact the Owls limited Williams to just eight points on 2 of 8 shooting. Williams did have three blocks and five alters to go with nine rebounds.
But he needed to be a more dominant, aggressive offensive player on a night where the Dragons shot just 29 percent in the first half and had to dig themselves out of a 14- point deficit in the second half.
“I think everybody’s always physical with him, I think sometimes he’s getting wedged out a little bit,” Spiker said. “We might have had a height advantage, but Temple played with an aggressive nature that allows him to get pushed out from time to time.”
Temple’s first year coach Adam Fisher, whose team is now 3-0, knew what kind of beast he was dealing with and opted to use 6-5 international forward Sam Hofman, a Barkley wannabe from Belgium, to muscle him. “We knew what kind of player he is, the type of emphasis we put on him,” said Hofman, who contributed eight points, seven rebounds and three steals in 32 active minutes. “The coaches did a great job with the scouting report, and it was just a battle down there, trying to be
physical and take away what he tries to do.”
Sophomore guard Hysier Miller led the Owls with 19 points, although the former Neumann-Goretti star shot just 5 for 22 and 3 of 13 from beyond the arc.
I like both coaches for these jobs. Fisher has a complete rebuild after losing five key players to schools with more NIL money. But he’s found a way to go 3-0, beating Drexel despite shooting just 31 percent by containing Williams, limiting turnovers to five and finding a way to get to the line 26 times in a survive and advance game.
“That’s Big 5 basketball,” Fisher said. “We knew it was going to be a possession game. It’s just what it is, and we talked a lot about it. We take great pride in playing in the Big 5, especially going on the road in the Big 5, it’s really hard to do. Really proud of these guys.”
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