Drexel pulls off ‘gritty’ overtime victory over La Salle

Drexel snapped La Salle’s two-game winning streak with a 65-58 overtime win in a City 6 men’s basketball matchup Saturday at Tom Gola Arena on Saturday.

“I think it’s just a total team effort,” said Drexel head coach Zach Spiker. “I thought we were gritty. I thought we were tough.”

Fifth-year guard Coletrane Washington led the Dragons with 21 points. He shot 6-for-13 from the field, including 3-for-6 from deep and made all six of his free throws. Teammate Amari Williams had a season-high four blocks and 14 points. The forward also led the Dragons with 11 rebounds and four assists.

La Salle freshman Rokas Jocius had a big first half off the bench, scoring all 12 of his points. Anwar Gill led La Salle with 15 points, and Jhamir Brickus added 12.

La Salle (5-5) opened the game strong, jumping to an 8-0 lead while the Dragons’ offense couldn’t get anything going. It took Drexel (5-5) more than four minutes to score, but settled in nicely after that — thanks to some timely three pointers from Washington.

The Dragons took their first lead, 25-24, on a three-pointer by Washington. After back-and-forth play during the final 3 minutes, 30 seconds of the first half, Drexel’s Jamie Bergens hit a buzzer-beating jumper to tie it, 31-31, at halftime.

Drexel led for the majority of the second half by just two possessions. It wasn’t until Gill had a three-point play — a layup that sent him to the free-throw line — that the two teams were tied, 53-53, with 2:30 to play.

Both teams went scoreless in the final minutes, sending it into overtime, when the Dragons outscored the Explorers, 12-5.

The Dragons shot just 34.2% from the field and 17.4% (4-for-23) from three. The Explorers shot 35.4% from the field and 26.3% (5-for-19) from long range.

“They played well when they needed to,” said La Salle head coach Fran Dunphy. “In overtime, I was hoping we could replicate what we did against Penn last week, but that didn’t work for us.”

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Up by two with under two minutes left in overtime, Williams backed his defender down and slammed home a thunderous two-handed dunk, putting the Dragons up, 57-53. Clutch free throws down the stretch from Washington sealed the win for Drexel.

La Salle has a tough road test, facing Cincinnati on Saturday (2 p.m., ESPN+). Drexel doesn’t have it much easier, traveling to Seton Hall on Wednesday (7 p.m., Fox Sports).

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