Drexel shocks Stony Brook to win CAA, secure tourney bid
» Amaris Baker and Brooke Mullin led a long-distance attack and Drexel shocked Stony Brook 68-60 in the championship game of the Coastal Athletic Association Tournament on Sunday to advance to its third NCAA Tournament.
The Dragons became the second straight No. 7 seed to win the CAA, while the Seawolves joined the list of top seeds who have not won the tournament since 2017.
Baker, a Cardinal O’Hara All-Delco, had 19 points, going 4 of 5 from 3-pointer range. Mullin, a grad transfer from Villanova, had 16, hitting 4 of her 9 3-pointers. Archbishop Carroll All-Delco Erin Sweeney scored a career-high 16 for the Dragons (19-14), who won their seventh straight game, the last three in the CAA Tournament by a total of five points. They won the championship in 2021 as a three seed.
“This team, the way they played the last four games, it just shows their resilience,” coach Amy Mallon said. “We talked all year long it was going to be a
year of rebuilding … and they just proved to everybody that anybody can be a Cinderella team. We had not one kid on the all-conference team, not one kid made anything but together as a team they’re winners.”
Drexel escaped the First Four games but is a No. 16 seed, heading to Austin to take on Big 12 champion and top-seeded Texas (304).
The winner of that game gets either No. 8 Alabama or No. 9 Florida State.
The Dragons went 11 of 19 from 3-point range, their third time in double figures for makes. It was their second highest total of the season and first time above 50 percent. They shot 23 of 46 from the floor overall.
Gigi Gonzalez, CAA Player of the Year, had 19 points for the Seawolves (27-4), who had their nine-game winning streak end. They last made the NCAA Tournament in 2021 as the American East Conference champs. Victoria Keenan added 14 points, Khari Clark scored 12 with 13 rebounds and Shamarla King added 10 points.
Baker hit a 3-pointer, and Hetta Saatman followed with a jumper and the Dragons led 64-50 midway through the fourth quarter. Stony Brook went to full-court pressure and Drexel never made another field goal. The Dragons had only three attempts as the pressure led to six turnovers. When Clark scored with 1:10 to play it was a four-point game.
Drexel had the ball as the clock dipped under one minute and the teams combined to commit three turnovers in 15 seconds.
Stony Brook missed a layup and eventually sent Grace O’Neill (Archbishop Carroll All-Delco) to the line, where the 81 percent shooter made a pair at 28.6 seconds. Another missed layup sent O’Neill back to the line where she missed two at 22.1 seconds. Then O’Neill took an offensive foul and Chloe Hodges wrapped it up at the freethrow line with 17 seconds to play.
Stony Brook finished 5 of 22 behind the arc and shot 31% overall (19 of 22). Drexel only played seven players and five finished with four fouls.
Drexel forced eight turnovers and held the Sea Wolves to 3-for-16 shooting in the first quarter to take a 16-9 lead.
Stony Brook continued to struggle from the field in the second quarter, going 4 of 13, but made 7 of 9 from the foul line in falling behind 36-26 at the break.
The Seawolves began to find the range in the third quarter, getting back-toback 3s from Keenan and King to pull within 4340. But after the teams traded baskets, Sweeney and O’Neill drained long shots to push the lead back to nine. It was the 3 from O’Neill, who just beat the buzzer from the left corner, that returned the momentum back to Drexel.
The Dragons only got up nine shots in the quarter but went 3 of 3 from long range.