Chloe Hodges’ layup with 3 seconds left lifts Drexel into the CAA women’s championship

The Drexel women’s team has left everything out on the floor for three consecutive days and more than 144 minutes of basketball. Technically, the stretch began long before — courtesy of winning four of its last five games of the regular season — but it’s almost as though they waited for this, conference tournament time, to leave little doubt that they deserve to be in the mix for March Madness.

There are no merit points for effort or for surprising the masses from the NCAA committee when you play in a one-bid league. For these Dragons, the reward of going dancing means they have to hoist the Coastal Athletic Association trophy in Washington.

That vision came into clearer focus on Saturday after Chloe Hodges’ layup with 3 seconds left gave the No. 9-seeded Dragons a 69-68 win over No. 6 Towson. They will face top-seeded Stony Brook in Sunday’s CAA championship game (2 p.m., FloHoops). This is just Stony Brook’s second season in the conference after joining from the America East ahead of the 2022-23 season.

“I think it’s pretty special,” said Drexel coach Amy Mallon. “We talk about where we were picked at the beginning of the year [No. 7 in CAA preseason poll] to now, and just to be able to be in the situation we’re in now, it’s all on this team. They believe in each other. And when you do that, as we know you can achieve anything.”

All three of Drexel’s wins have come down to one possession and this one specifically came down to a little bit of bad luck for Towson that the Dragons would capitalize on. Down 68-67 with 14 seconds remaining, it didn’t look good for Drexel.

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Towson guard Anasia Stanton was at the line shooting two. But Stanton would miss both, and a Drexel box-out found Dragons guard Amaris Baker (game-high 23 points) with the defensive rebound that fueled the game’s turning point in the waning moments.

Cue up 4.6 seconds, and a Towson team foul for a Drexel inbounds pass. Brooke Mullin heaved a pass to Hodges in the paint for the basket that has the Dragons playing for at least one more day. Alongside Baker and Hodges (15 points), Drexel forward Hetta Saatman finished in double-digits with 11 points.

For Towson, junior guard Patricia Anumgba led the way with 20 points and senior guard Kylie Kornegay-Lucas added 15.

“We execute when it matters down the stretch,” said Hodges. “We win by possessions, we don’t really blow people out. So that’s something that we all know going into the game, that we’re probably going to have to execute down the stretch. So everyone on the floor is ready, ready to score, ready to execute.”

That mindset has been the Drexel way en route to winning seven of its last eight games, including its three-game streak in the CAA tournament. It’s only loss in that stretch? A 60-58 home loss to Sunday’s foe, Stony Brook, on March 1.

“Our team is motivated to play the top team coming into the championship game,” said Mallon. “I think that’s just where you want to be … and so we’re more than excited to face them tomorrow. I think it’s going to be a battle. That’s what the championship game is always about.”

Mallon paused, smiled, and added:

“Personally, I’m excited. I mean, for this team to compete and have that opportunity is a testament to how hard we work. We deserve to be here. We always say ‘Dragons are real.’ That’s our saying and that’s definitely our mindset heading into the championship game.”