Drexel beats Utah to win WNIT title

The Drexel women's basketball team is in a class all its own.

Hollie Mershon scored the game's final four points as the Dragons beat Utah, 46-43, in Saturday's WNIT final at the Daskalakis Athletic Center. The win enabled Drexel to become Philadelphia's first Division I women's team to win a national postseason tournament.

The Dragons (28-10) also finished their campaign with the most single-season wins in school history. The Utes finished 23-14.

Mershon's layup with 20.6 seconds left gave Drexel a 44-43 advantage. Then the senior guard's foul shots with 9.7 seconds remaining made it a 46-43 game. Utah's Michelle Plouffe missed a desperation three-pointer at the buzzer before the Drexel students and fans stormed the court.

"It's really, at this point, indescribable," Mershon said of winning the WNIT title. "Obviously, I'm ecstatic. I'm happy. It's just very emotional. And I couldn't ask for a better way to end my career here."

Those four points more than made up for a poor-shooting performance by the former Archbishop Carroll standout. Mershon, who was named the tourney MVP, finished with 14 points on 5-for-20 shooting.

The all-Colonial Athletic Association selection said she was dealing with a million emotions as a result of her struggles during the game.

"It was my last game," said Mershon, who also had eight rebounds, three assists, and two steals. "It was our last shot at a championship.

"And what kind of got me through it, I kept thinking back to the Delaware game [a 59-56 setback in the CAA tournament final]."

It took Mershon a long time to get over the hurt associated with that March 17 setback.

"And that's certainly not what I wanted, again," she said, "and especially to end my career that way."

Instead, Mershon ends her career as a WNIT champion. She also finishes third on Drexel's all-time assists list with 387 and fifth in scoring with 1,601 points.

Teammate Taylor Wootton led all scorers with 16 points on Saturday to finish her career with 1,003 points. The senior from Rutherford, N.J., is the 21st Drexel women's player to score 1,000 points.

The Dragons took their first lead of the game, 36-33, with 10 minutes, 3 seconds remaining, on a three-pointer by Fiona Flanagan (Notre Dame de Namur).

They extended their lead to five points twice. But after consecutive three-pointers by Cheyenne Wilson and Iwalani Rodrigues, the Utes led, 43-42, with 3:07 left.

But those turned out to be Utah's final points.