Marginean's Late-Game Heroics Lift Dragons Over VCU 55-53

Sunday, January 24

Daskalakis Athletic Center

12:00

Drexel University

Virginia Commonwealth

Marginean's jumper in the final seconds gave Drexel the win over VCU

Marginean's Late-Game Heroics Lift Dragons Over VCU 55-53

1/24/2010 2:19:36 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

Philadelphia - Gabriela Marginean drained a 14-foot jumper from the baseline in front of the Drexel bench with just under three seconds remaining to give Drexel a 55-53 victory over Virginia Commonwealth. The win moves Drexel (12-6) into a first place tie with the Rams (13-6) at 6-1 in CAA play. Kamile Nacickaite led all scorers with 16 points and seven rebounds while Marginean finished with 15 points and Jasmina Rosseel chipped in 11.

After a slow 2-for-7 shooting start for Marginean, the senior hit three of her last four shots in the last six and a half minutes of the game, with none larger than her game-winner in the waning seconds. Kamile Nacickaite redeemed herself after missing a layup that would have given the Dragons the lead with under a minute to play, by playing strong defense on VCU's D'Andra Moss. Nacickaite forced a tough three-point attempt by Moss and boxed out to cause a deadball rebound, giving Drexel the ball with 29 seconds left.

The Dragons brought the ball down court and called a timeout with 8.2 seconds remaining to set up the last shot. Following a chess match that resulted in three successive timeouts before the ball was set into play, Marisa Crane received the inbounds pass at the top of the arc. She passed the ball to Marginean on the wing, who fought off her defender to catch the pass then blew past her defender to the right and pulled up for a jumper from the baseline. The ball found its way through the rim with just under three seconds on the clock and a half-court heave from Ebony Patterson came up short, sending more than 700 fans in attendance on Alumni Day into a frenzy.

Despite combining to score more than half of Drexel's points, Marginean and Nacickaite found themselves in foul trouble throughout the contest. Both players spent more than five minutes on the bench at the end of the first half and Marginean was in and out of the game for the last four minutes of play after contracting her fourth foul.

Drexel outshot VCU in the contest 48.8 percent to 33.3, but the Rams clearly dominated on the boards. VCU pulled down 37 rebounds to Drexel's 27 and grabbed 18 on the offensive glass. The Rams converted their extra chances into 14 points and capitalized on 15 Drexel turnovers to score 18 points.

The Dragons led VCU for all but five minutes of the first half, but trailed 21-17 at halftime after the Rams used an 8-2 run to close the period while Marginean and Nacickaite were out of the game.

Jasmina Rosseel led the Dragons out of the locker room with a driving layup and a three-pointer to cap an 8-0 run that put Drexel back on top. The Dragons would build their lead to as much as nine points when Nacickaite hit a three-pointer from the wing after a series of swing passes found their way to the open shooter, making it a 38-29 Drexel lead with 12:39 to play.

VCU employed a full-court press and trapped at half court in an attempt to get back in the game. The Rams' offensive rebounding proved to be their best asset, however. VCU converted three put-back layups during a 12-2 run that put the Rams on top 41-40 on a Moss three-pointer with 8:20 left.

That's when Marginean took over the game. She found herself open on a pair of curl screens, resulting in layups on consecutive possessions. Nacickaite gave the Rams a bit of their own medicine when she followed up a missed layup by Tyler Hale with a put-back of her own to put Drexel on top by four.

Marginean answered a pair of layups by Courtney Hurt and Kita Waller with a pair of free-throws to break a 51-51 tie at the 2:03 mark. But a driving layup by Jennifer Lane on the other end evened the score at 53 apiece, setting up the thrilling conclusion.

The victory is Drexel's 17th straight CAA home win dating back to the 2007-08 season. For the moment it moves the Dragons into a two-way tie with VCU for first place atop the conference standings, pending the results of this afternoon's other contests. The victory was viewed by a regional television audience on The Comcast Network. Drexel is now 9-1 in televised contests since 2005-06.

Drexel travels to play at Northeastern on Thursday, Jan. 28 before returning to the DAC to face Delaware on Sunday, Jan. 31, in a reprise last Sunday's double-overtime victory over the Hens.