The Triangle

Issue date: 1/25/08 Section: Sports

Media Credit: Evan Rosen With its 63-50 victory over UNC-Washington Jan. 20, at the Daskalakis Athletic Center, the women's basketball team won its ninth straight game. Drexel (10-6, 5-0 CAA) is tied for first place in the conference.

Any sane person would laugh you off if you said a 1-6 college basketball team could rattle off a winning streak of any significant length. The Dragons have achieved the near-impossible by winning nine in a row, including five in the conference. The victim du jour on Jan. 20 was UNC-Wilmington as the Dragons dispatched the Seahawks 63-50 at the Daskalakis Athletic Center.

"I didn't expect us to start as poorly as we did with this team," Drexel head coach Denise Dillon said. "You can't place those expectations like there for a winning streak. You just go with what's happening."

Drexel (10-6, 5-0 CAA) dominated from the outset. Nicole Hester hit three 3-pointers in a 13-5 run to open the game. The Seahawks (10-6, 1-4 CAA) never came within five points the rest of the way.

"Yeah, I don't know what happened," Hester said. "I was just shooting it and it went in so I was like, 'OK, I'll shoot it again.'"

Hester finished the game with 16 points, five rebounds and a career high eight assists. She connected on 4-6 shots from beyond the arc.

"I can't say enough about Nicole Hester and what she has brought to the team this year," Dillon said. "She is really coming into her own with being an offensive threat, passing the ball and then defensively, we always thought of her as one of our better defenders."

The Dragons have started 5-0 in conference play for the first time since joining the CAA in 2001.

"The girls are starting off exactly how we need to in conference," Dillon said. "You figure you're going to take your hits here and there, but we will keep going with it as long as it lasts."

After the Dragons' hot start, both teams struggled offensively for the rest of the first half, and Drexel took a 27-21 lead into the locker room. The Dragons scored early and often after intermission with a 6-0 run to reclaim a double-digit lead, and the team never looked back.

Continued...

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