From Nov. 20th thru Dec. 1st, I’ll be on the road, hitting 21 games in 11 days. To follow along and read my stories from the road, click here.
NEW YORK -- Playing without Damion Lee, Drexel outlasted Alabama 85-83 in three overtimes on Friday afternoon.
“We came here with the thought we could win games,” Bruiser Flint said. “We weren’t just happy to be in the tournament. I was disappointed about Wednesday [night’s loss to Arizona].”
Chris Fouch finished with 19 points and Tavon Allen added 16 points, six boards and four assists. Frantz Massenat had 17 but battled foul trouble for much of the game, while Kazembe Abif bounced back after missing Wednesday night, going for 15 points and 11 boards, eight of which came on the offensive end of the floor.
“We really grinded it out,” Fouch said. “Things weren’t going our way, it was kind of back and forth, but we buckled down and got the stop that we wanted.”
The game itself was exciting, as Alabama used a 16-1 run in the second half erase a double-digit deficit. Nick Jacobs was a force on the inside for the Crimson Tide, finishing with 23 points and eight boards before fouling out in the first overtime, while Trevor Releford went for 21 points, eight boards, four assists and four steals. He had two points at halftime.
The game was thrilling, and it was a huge win for a Drexel team playing without one of their best players. Alabama might not be an NCAA tournament caliber team this season, but they are going to finish in the top half of the SEC. The Dragons need to win games like that if they are going to be more than just a physical team from Philly.
The most interesting aspect of the game wasn’t what happened on the court; it was the court.
Madison Square Garden was mostly empty in the first half, but as Arizona and Duke fans started filing in for the second game, the atmosphere started to pick up as 95% of the people in the gym were simply rooting for the game to end. The loudest the gym got was at the end of the second overtime, when the refs missed a foul call against Alabama that would have sent Drexel to the line to win the game. The boos that rained down on Jimmy Taylor as he tried to tie the game at the end of the third overtime made it sound like Alabama was playing a road game in front of 15,000 people.
“I don’t know why they picked us to cheer for but I was enjoying it,” Fouch said with a smile.