Philadelphia - After leading the Dragons to a 2-0 performance on the week with a pair of close victories over conference foes, Drexel's Gabriela Marginean and Jasmina Rosseel have been honored by the Colonial Athletic Association. Marginean earned CAA Player of the Week honors and Rosseel was named CAA Rookie of the Week. It is the third conference weekly award of the season for both players.
Marginean turned in two of her best back-to-back performances of the season when the Dragons needed a lift this week. She became the first Drexel sophomore ever to score 1,000 career points, putting in Drexel’s first five of the game against Towson on Thursday to reach the benchmark. In doing so, she matched Old Dominion’s Clarisse Machanguana as the fastest player in conference history to reach the milestone. Marginean didn’t stop there, she went on to match her season high with 28 points in the game. She made her first 15 free-throws of the contest before missing and hit 5-of-6 in the final 31 seconds of the game to give the important win in a tight game with the Tigers.
Against George Mason on Sunday, Marginean led all scorers with 26 points. She scored eight straight points for the Dragons during a span of 2:23 in the second half to give the team a six-point lead after trailing by as much as 11 points in the period. She also pulled down six rebounds and snared a team-leading three steals. On the week, Marginean averaged 27 ppg, 6.5 rebounds, 3.5 steals and she shot 25-for-27 from the free-throw line.
Rosseel provided Drexel with a scoring lift this week, helping the Dragons go 2-0 two tight conference games against Towson and George Mason. She came off the bench to score 13 points against the Tigers, 11 of them coming in the second half. She steadied the team after the Dragons squandered an 18-point first-half lead and allowed the Tigers to take a one-point lead twice win the second period. With Towson on top 38-37 at the 12:14 mark, Rosseel scored 10 of the Dragons next 13 points on two pull-up jumpers and two three-pointers, the second of which gave Drexel a seven-point lead at the 7:24 mark.
Against George Mason on Sunday, Rosseel turned in one of her best all-around performances of the season. She came off the bench to match her career-high with 18 points and set a new career-mark with seven rebounds. Once again, her biggest plays of the game came when the Dragons most needed them. Trailing by 11 points to the Patriots early in the second half, Rosseel sandwiched two three-pointers around a Marginean layup then drove in for a pair of her own lay-ins. The second capped a 17-5 Drexel run that eliminated Mason’s lead and knotted the game at 43-43 with 10:38 on the clock. On the week Rosseel averaged 15.5 ppg, 6.0 rebounds, 2.0 assists and was 4-for-9 from long range.
Drexel's sweep of the weekly awards marks the first time Dragons have been honored in both categories since Gabriela Marginean earned both awards on Feb. 26, 2007. Marginean and Rosseel lead the Dragons into competition this week in the team's regular-season finale at Georgia State on Thursday, March 6 at 6:00 p.m.