Women's Basketball Captures the 2013 WNIT Championship

Saturday, April 6

Daskalakis Athletic Center

3:00 p.m.

Drexel University

28-10

Utah

23-14

UTAH

Drexel

Photo by: Greg Carroccio

Women's Basketball Captures the 2013 WNIT Championship

4/6/2013 6:02:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

WNIT CHAMPIONSHIP PHOTO GALLERY

PHILADELPHIA - Taylor Wootton will end her career with a win. The senior forward, who has played more games than anyone who has ever worn a Drexel uniform, saved one of her best games for last as she scored a game-high 16 points and added six rebounds to help guide the Drexel women's basketball team to the 2013 WNIT championship with a 46-43 victory over Utah. Wootton, who has played in a Dragon-record 131 games, became just the 21st player in Drexel women's basketball history to reach 1,000 career points early in the second half, and finished her career with 1,003.

Hollie Mershon will end her career with a win. The senior guard played just one game less than Wootton over the course of her career, and finished the season as Drexel's leading scorer. She was named the WNIT Most Valuable Player after a performance that saw her score 14 points, including 12 in the second half. Mershon drove down the left side and scored with 21 seconds remaining to give the Dragons a 44-43 lead, and after a Utah turnover, Mershon hit both ends of a 1-and-1 to put the Dragons up by their final margin of three points.

Renee Johnson-Allen will end her career with a win. The senior guard finished with six points and three rebounds after a season in which she became arguably the Dragons' best rebounder despite her 5'6" stature. Johnson-Allen, who started the season's final 15 games, figured into one of the championship game's most important plays late in the contest. With the Utes up by a point and taking the ball out of bounds under their own basket, Wootton tipped the inbounds pass to Johnson-Allen, who somehow kept the ball inbounds and helped Drexel regain possession with 30 seconds remaining. That led to Mershon's go-ahead layup nine seconds later.

Nicki Jones will end her career with a win, too. The senior forward has missed the season's final 15 games after sustaining a knee injury in the Dragons' loss at Hofstra on Valentine's Day, but after undergoing surgery last week, Jones was on the bench for Drexel's semifinal and final game, one of the loudest supporters of her teammates on the court. Jones, who contributed 8.6 points and 4.6 rebounds a game as a senior before the injury, was one of the first Dragons to cut down a piece of the net after the win, and proudly wore the net around her neck as the celebration continued.

Drexel (28-10) set a school record for wins and became the first Philadelphia Division I women's basketball team to win a postseason championship as it completed its run through the WNIT with the victory over Utah (23-14). The Dragons trailed for nearly the entire first half as the Utes seemed to have an answer every time Drexel got close. After seeing a five-point lead in the second half evaporate, the Dragons fought back with Mershon's late heroics to bring home the championship and bring the Daskalakis Athletic Center crowd of 1,922 storming onto the court to celebrate with their team.

Wootton, who scored the first seven points for Drexel and played the entire 40 minutes, was named to the WNIT All-Tournament Team alongside the MVP Mershon.

Iwalani Rodrigues led Utah with 12 points in the loss. Michelle Plouffe finished a point shy of a double-double with nine points and 14 rebounds.

Trailing 24-21 at the half, the Dragons came out of intermission and continued to struggle shooting from the floor. Utah held a five-point lead before Wootton knocked down a jumper that gave her point number 1,000 with 17:19 to play.

The Utes responded, however, and scored five of the game's next six points to build a 31-24 lead. That is when the patented Drexel defense clamped down. Over the next 8:30, Utah would score just two points as Drexel clawed its way to a 38-33 lead. Renee Johnson-Allen took a feed from Mershon with 10:38 remaining that tied the score at 33. Thirty seconds later, Mershon found an open Fiona Flanagan at the top of the key. Flanagan drained the three-pointer, one of a tournament-low five for the Dragons, to hand Drexel its first lead of the day at 36-33. After another defensive stop, mershon drove to the bucket and scored to put the Dragons up by five.

Utah did not roll over. A three-pointer by Plouffe at the 7:50 mark ended the Utes' skid, and pulled them back within a bucket at 38-36. Moments later, Plouffe went to the line for two shots, but hit just one, and Flanagan hit a long two-pointer with her foot on the line to push Drexel back up by three.

Both teams were scoreless for the next two-and-a-half minutes until Johnson-Allen stole a Plouffe pass and drove to the hoop to score. Up by five, the Dragons quickly saw that lead disappear as Cheyenne Wilson and Rodrigues hit back-to-back three-pointers to put the Utes back on top by one with 3:07 to play.

Drexel had chances in the ensuing minutes, but Utah contested the Dragons well as they drove to the basket, forcing hurried, difficult shots that did not fall. After Mershon and Wootton both missed short shots and saw Plouffe pull down a defensive board with 34 seconds to play, it appeared that Drexel would need some help.

They created the help themselves when Wootton deflected the Utes' pass over to Johnson-Allen. After a timeout, Mershon took the ball down the left side and made sure this one dropped, drawing a roar from the crowd and pushing Drexel back in the lead. Utah still had 21 seconds to work with though, but an errant pass from Rodrigues to Plouffe bounded into the backcourt and Drexel regained possession.

When Mershon stepped to the line with 9.7 seconds to play, there was little doubt that the shots were going in. Utah had one last look at the basket as the buzzer sounded, but it fell short and the Dragons celebrated.

Drexel finished its season with a program record for wins at 28. The Dragons also set a Drexel mark with a defense that allowed just 51.4 points per game, nearly three points better than the previous record set last season (54.3). Mershon finished with 1,601 points, the fifth player ever to reach the 1,600 point plateau in Drexel history. She also finished third with 387 career assists. She stands as the only player in program history to reach 1,600 points and 300 career assists. Mershon also finished among the leaders in three-pointers made (193), field goals made (567), three-point percentage (.357) and free throw percentage (.840). Wootton finished among the top-10 in field goal percentage (.451), free throw percentage (.779) and blocked shots (56).

The Dragons played 38 games in 2012-13, the most they could possibly have played with their schedule heading into the season. Drexel was a tired team by the end, but a team that had beaten Iona, Harvard, Bowling Green, Auburn, Florida and Utah on its way to the title. The season now over, and four outstanding Drexel careers complete, the Dragons can now rest up, and celebrate their title as the WNIT champions.