Drexel’s OT thriller over Delaware the latest in a rivalry that features the greatest comeback in college basketball history
In 2018, the Dragons, who trailed by 34 points late in the first half, mounted the greatest comeback in Division I history, breaking a record that stood for more than 60 years.
Before Drexel’s game against Delaware on Feb. 22, 2018, guard Troy Harper decided to do something he had never done before. A couple of weeks earlier, he had just watched his beloved Eagles capture the franchise’s first Super Bowl in improbable fashion, and during the parade, Philadelphia center Jason Kelce famously coined the phrase “hungry dogs run faster.”
So Harper, a junior at the time, wrote it on a whiteboard in the locker room before the Dragons played Delaware. Drexel was on a four-game losing streak and in dire need of a win.
Twenty minutes of game time later, the team was back in the locker room, staring at that whiteboard, down by 27 points.
“I don’t know what made me write that on the board, but I went for it,” Harper said in a recent phone interview. “We all [saw] it at halftime, and I think the whole halftime I was just looking up at it like ‘just keep playing hard, we’ll figure it out.’ If you play hard, who knows what will happen?”
The answer, Harper would soon find out, is history.
» READ MORE: Drexel players are still stunned, elated by record-setting comeback
The Dragons, who trailed by 34 points late in the first half, mounted the greatest comeback in Division I basketball history, breaking a record that stood for 67 years. Drexel, somehow, went from being down 53-19 to winning by 85-83 in regulation.
“It’s a great life lesson,” said Drexel coach Zach Spiker. “Never down, never out. Just got to keep fighting, and keep chipping away. Really proud of that entire team.”
The win eclipsed the record set in 1950 when Duke shook off a 32-point deficit to defeat Tulane.
With the Dragons trailing by a seemingly insurmountable amount, Spiker was just trying to keep everyone positive. In the locker room, he wasn’t teeing off on his players for possibly one of the worst first-half performances in Drexel history, but rather relaying a simple message for the second half: “Play media timeout to media timeout.”
“We won a couple of those segments by 10, by eight, and the next thing you know, you’re kind of back in the game,” he said.
“I remember guys saying, ‘Don’t look at the score, just keep playing,’” said guard Sammy Mojica, who started the game and finished with 16 points. “There’s no shot that counts for 20 points that’s going to bring us back close that fast.”
The second half was a complete flip. The Dragons pressed hard, playing plenty of guards to disrupt ball handlers, and finally, shots started to fall. Over the final 20 minutes, Drexel shot 56.8% from the field and 53.8% from three after shooting 34.3% overall in the first half and 25% from beyond the arc.
“I’ve never been blown out like that before, never been down that much, but honestly, in my head, it was like we couldn’t hit a shot in the first half,” Mojica said. “We could not make baskets in the first half, and then all of a sudden, second half started, and we [couldn’t miss].”
With 5 minutes, 21 seconds remaining, the Dragons cut their deficit to single digits for the first time since early in the first half. A steal then led to a layup from Harper, and the Dragons were within seven … and then the play of the game happened.
As Delaware brought the ball up the court, Drexel’s press in full force, Mojica knocked the ball loose and it bounced toward the end of the Dragons’ bench. He dodged the referee, who was in his way, grabbed the ball as he was falling out of bounds, and tossed it in the air behind him. Harper tipped it, hustled to the baseline to save it, and also chucked it behind him before falling out.
Harper’s save fell into the hands of Tramaine Isabell, who then knocked down a three and brought Drexel within four.
“That was a huge possession,” Mojica said. “That was like, yo, like, yeah, yeah, we’re winning this game for sure. We want it more than them.”
With 3:50 left, Drexel tied it up, and two free throws by Isabell — who finished with a game-high 29 points — with 2.2 seconds remaining proved to be the game-winners.
After the game, everyone celebrated in the locker room, the whiteboard reading “hungry dogs run faster” watching them. Then, Spiker had another message for his team.
“Hey, guys, enjoy SportsCenter tonight ‘cause we’re definitely gonna be on it.’”
» READ MORE: Drexel defeats rival Delaware, 77-74, in an overtime thriller at the DAC