Men's basketball season comes to abrupt end

By: Mike Mazzeo

Posted: 3/13/09

Scott Rodgers sat teary-eyed at the podium in the postgame press conference following No. 6 Drexel's shocking first-round CAA Tournament loss to No. 11 Towson.

Rodgers had every right to be emotional.

His career had come to an abrupt halt - if not an end - as did his team's once promising 2008-09 season.

The notoriously slow-starting Dragons gave up the game's first 15 points, trailed 39-14 at halftime and never recovered, falling 73-62 to the Tigers March 6 at the Richmond Coliseum in Richmond, Va.

"What are you going to do?" Drexel head coach Bruiser Flint said. "We were awful."

Rodgers, a Second Team All-CAA selection, was held to just 11 points on 2-of-15 shooting and had five turnovers in his final game. The senior guard finished his storied career with 996 points.

"I'm disappointed," Rodgers said. "Individual accomplishments don't mean anything if you don't come in here and win."

Drexel (15-14) was picked last in the 12-team CAA's preseason poll, but surprised the conference - at one point winning seven consecutive games - on its way to finishing sixth with a record of 10-8. As a result, Flint garnered the CAA Coach of the Year award.

However, his team was on a downward trend. The Dragons had lost three consecutive one-point conference games heading into the postseason.

But not one of the players, coaches, media or 8,321 fans in attendance expected what was to come right from the opening tip.

Towson (11-21) started the game out on fire, connecting on six of its first seven shots and opened up a 15-0 lead as Drexel failed to connect on its first nine attempts from the field.

In fact, the Dragons did not make their first basket until the 13:01 mark, when Leon Spencer threw down an uncontested two-handed dunk off a broken play as all five Tigers were sprinting up the floor.

Towson led by as many as 26 in the first half and it looked as though Drexel wouldn't even get into double-digits by the break.

The Dragons did manage to end up with 14 points after the first 20 minutes, but shot a mere 17.4 percent from the field (4-of-23).

Rodgers and fellow senior Tramayne Hawthorne were a combined 0-for-11 in the first half and had two points between them.

"We didn't do anything to start the game," Flint said. "We didn't make layup. We didn't play defense. We didn't get any rebounds. That's why you get down by 20-something points."

"[In the] playoffs, it's do or die. We didn't do anything."

Drexel made a valiant attempt to comeback in the second half. But in the end it was too little, too late.

The Dragons used a late 17-4 run to get within 49-41 with 5:59 remaining after Hawthorne completed a 3-point play when he hit a driving floater in the lane and got a subsequent steal and layup.

Rocky Coleman countered for Towson with a driving layup to put the Tigers back up 10.

Evan Neisler's strong finish on the inside got it down to eight again, but Robert Nwankwo followed with a layup in transition to make it a 10-point game. And, Junior Hairston's one-handed alley-oop jam at the 4:48 mark put Towson ahead 55-43 and halted any thoughts of Drexel pulling a miracle.

"You dig yourself that big of a hole, it's hard to get out of it," Flint said. "It was gonna be a miraculous recovery if we did, but we didn't. But we dug ourselves that hole because we weren't ready to start the game, and you gotta give those guys credit - they played their butts off."

Hawthorne had all 11 of his points in the second half in his last ever game wearing the blue and gold. Jamie Harris also added 11.

Hairston paced four players in double digits for the Tigers with a game-high 24 points. Troy Franklin added 13 in support of Towson's star. Coleman finished with 11, and Jarrel Smith had 10.

Spencer grabbed a career-high 11 rebounds to go along with six points. However, the junior forward was ejected with 11:21 left after he threw a hard elbow that caught Franklin in the face.

After a long conference, which included looking at the video tape, the refs confirmed their initial ruling to the dismay of the Dragons' bench.

Flint said postgame he did not know whether Spencer would be suspended for next year's season opener.

Drexel ended up shooting only 32.8 percent from the field. The Dragons made just three of their 18 3-point attempts and winded up going an abysmal 15-of-29 from the free throw line.

Now Drexel must look to focus on the offseason and how to fix its weaknesses.

The Dragons will be without their two best perimeter defenders in Rodgers and Hawthorne.

However, the offensive side of the ball is what needs to be worked on.

Drexel struggled in its half-court offense and set plays out of timeouts.

Flint and his coaching staff can only hope that medical redshirt freshman and sharpshooter Chris Fouch can aid in the team's shooting woes.

And that's just the start.

The 2009-10 season might be approximately eight months away - but you can never stop thinking about the future.