Colonial Fans

Drexel 62, Old Dominion 57

There are lies, damn lies, and statistics, or so the saying goes. The truism isn’t always backed up by the evidence, but on some occasions, it definitely applies.

Take Thursday night’s Colonial Athletic Association encounter in Philadelphia as a classic example. When the Drexel Dragons hosted the Old Dominion Monarchs at the John Daskalakis Center, the numbers and percentages didn’t make a whole lot of sense.

Drexel coach Bruiser Flint won’t care one whit. He’ll only thank the heavens that his team was rugged and persistent enough to topple the defending regular-season and tournament champion in the Colonial, creating a shift in this season’s standings. Drexel’s five-point triumph displaces coach Blaine Taylor’s ODU squad from second place in the Colonial.

Hofstra leads the Colonial at 5-0, but James Madison, thanks to its Thursday night win over Georgia State, is now tied for second in the CAA with a 4-1 mark alongside Virginia Commonwealth. ODU is now tied for fourth with Drexel at 3-2 in the league. The Monarchs’ fall from grace in the conference is just as surprising as the fact that Drexel won this game despite a number of statistical black marks.

You’re not supposed to win a game in which you shoot 39 percent from the field.

You’re not supposed to win a game in which you hit only four 3-pointers.

You’re not supposed to win a game in which you hit just 16 of 28 foul shots, leaving 12 points at the line in a grinding defensive game against a program – Old Dominion – that hangs its hat on defense and won an NCAA Tournament game last March against Notre Dame in New Orleans.

You’re not supposed to win a game in which you force only five turnovers from your opponent. Old Dominion took great care of the basketball and did not make silly mistakes.

You’re not supposed to win a game in which your assist-to-turnover ratio is negative. Drexel dished out just nine dimes while committing 10 turnovers. Old Dominion, on the other hand, accumulated 15 assists against those five meager turnovers. How in the Sam Hill did the Dragons pull this game out of the fire in their own building?

Simply stated, Old Dominion – which plays its home games in the coastal Virginia town of Norfolk – couldn’t hit the ocean from the shore on Thursday. The Monarchs gained a 12-point lead in the first half, a 30-18 bulge with 3:53 left before halftime. Given their defensive prowess and their preference for a slowdown style, that 12-point lead would normally feel like a 20-point lead for most other clubs. Yet, Drexel overcame that deficit because ODU simply couldn’t shoot straight in the second half.

The Monarchs missed the mark repeatedly after halftime, hitting just eight field goal attempts while the Dragons rallied. Three ODU players – Kent Bazemore, Ben Finney, and Keyon Carter – combined to hit 14 of 28 shots, but none of the three men got more than 10 field goal attempts on a night when they evidently needed to touch the ball a lot more often. The rest of the Monarchs – beyond the Bazemore, Finney and Carter law firm of accurate shooters – went just 8 of 35 from the floor. That’s how Drexel rallied. The Dragons, while barely above 50 percent from the foul line, did earn 13 more trips to the charity stripe (28 to 15). That allowed coach Flint’s forces to make seven more free throws in what turned out to be a five-point game.

Yes, there were good reasons why Drexel dumped Old Dominion to fourth place in the Colonial, one year after the Monarchs ruled the league. However, the Dragons, on most nights, would have been torched in their own right. They can thank their lucky stars Old Dominion lost any and all accuracy in the City of Brotherly Love.

Matt Zemek
DFN Sports Senior Staff Writer