Drexel goes cold down the stretch and loses at James Madison, 73-64
The Dragons, who never led in the game, rallied from 16 points down in the first half and had their chances in the second half but went almost five minutes without a field goal late.
After falling behind James Madison by 17 points in the first half Sunday, Drexel went on a 16-0 run before halftime. The Dragons probably felt they had plenty of time in the second half to take a victory home with them on the long ride from Harrisonburg, Va.
But the Dragons never were able to take the lead in the final 20 minutes and squandered their final chance by going nearly five minutes down the stretch without a basket, winding up with a 73-64 loss to the Dukes at Atlantic Union Bank Center.
The game was rescheduled Friday by the CAA because the Dragons’ weekend series against Northeastern was postponed after the Huskies reported positive COVID-19 tests in their program.
Cam Wynter scored 29 points for Drexel (7-6, 2-4 CAA) and Zach Walton added 15. With his team trailing 33-16, Wynter scored 10 points in the run of 16 straight over a 4½-minute stretch, but a pair of late turnovers enabled the Dukes to lead by 39-32 at the break.
The visitors stayed within striking distance for much of the second half. They were one possession away from tying or taking the lead on four occasions early in the period. They were four points down, 62-58, on Walton’s layup with 5 minutes, 13 seconds to play.
But that would be Drexel’s last field goal for a long, long time. Walton’s two free throws made it a 64-60 game at the 3:42 mark, but the Dragons missed four shots and committed a turnover on their next five trips, leading to a 7-0 run by the Dukes (9-5, 4-1) that put the game away.
“I thought we started the game poorly and ended it poorly,” Drexel coach Zach Spiker said. “There were some things we certainly can improve upon. We had some pretty good looks. I thought we did a much better job executing in the second half. Nothing crazy, we just didn’t turn it over.”
The Dragons turned the ball over six times on their first 10 possessions and trailed 15-4 with the game barely over four minutes old.
Other than Wynter and Walton, the rest of the Dragons struggled to score, going 7 of 22 with two threes and scoring 20 points. James Butler, the team’s No. 2 scorer with a 14.4-point average, had just six.
“I think our supporting cast can be more efficient than they were today,” Spiker said, “but they’ll have other opportunities. There’s been times they’ve really carried us but we needed them to do a little more, like today.
Sophomore forward Mate Okros, who hadn’t missed a start in his first 45 games at Drexel, sat out with an injury.