Dragons too much for Dukes Marginean scores 26 as Drexel claims bid to NCAA tournament HARRISONBURG - Finally, at the end of a long and erratic afternoon, Gabriela Marginean located a comfort zone. Marginean, the Colonial Athletic Association women’s basketball player of the year, scored 26 points, including 14 of 14 from the free throw line, to lift the Drexel Dragons to a 64-58 victory over James Madison in yesterday’s tournament title game on the Dukes’ home floor. Marginean buried 13 second-half free throws and shot 10 of 10 from the line in the final 1:36.

The VCU Rams have developed a loyal following, and when the Rams play in the CAA tournament, those fans come out in force. That was the case yesterday for the quarterfinal game between VCU and Georgia State. A handful of Panthers fans was present, but they were drowned out by the gold-clad Rams faithful. The Coliseum no longer is VCU’s home court, but the crowd provided a home-court atmosphere.

Missing your first nine shots and falling behind 15-0 is never a good idea, especially in the first round of your conference tournament. That’s what happened to the sixth-seeded Drexel Dragons tonight against the No. 11 Towson Tigers in the Colonial Athletic Association men’s basketball tournament at the Coliseum. The result was a 73-62 victory for the underdog Tigers before what was left of an evening crowd of 8,321.

No. 11 seed Towson held the sixth-seeded Drexel Dragons scoreless for almost seven minutes in bolting to a 15-0 advantage and went on to take a 39-14 halftime bulge tonight in the final first-round game of the day in the Colonial Athletic Association men’s basketball tournament at the Coliseum. Junior Hairston had 13 points in the half and almost outscored the Dragons by himself. Teammate Jarrel Smith added 10 points for Towson, which shot 50 percent from the field (14 of 28). Drexel was only 4 of 23 (17.4 percent).

Scott Rodgers Junior Hairston   When: 8:30 p.m. Radio: WXGI (950); Sirius Satellite Radio (Ch. 126) Projected starting lineups:  Head to head : Drexel swept the series, 60-53 at Towson and 78-65 at home.
  Notable: Tramayne Hawthorne, a 6-0 senior guard, averaged 8.5 points off the bench for Drexel. The Dragons come into the tournament on a two-game losing streak. They ripped off a seven-game winning streak, all conference games, in January. Towson has used 16 starting lineups this season. The Tigers have averaged 63 points in their victories. They are 1-1 in Friday games this season. Josh Thornton, a 6-2 junior, averages 11.2 points off the bench for the Tigers. Jarrell Smith, a 6-7 sophomore, brings 10.3 points and 4.8 rebounds off the bench. Tigers coach Pat Kennedy is in his 29th season as a head coach. He has directed the programs at Iona, Florida State, DePaul and Montana. Kennedy is 472-406 lifetime, but hasn’t had a winning season since 1999-2000 at DePaul. When Drexel won at Towson, it marked the 500th loss for the Tigers in the Towson Center and the 400th loss of Kennedy’s career.

Virginia Commonwealth University sophomore forward Larry Sanders, was named defensive player of the year at the CAA’s banquet tonight. That gave the VCU Rams the two top player honors—senior point guard Eric Maynor was awarded his second straight CAA player-of-the-year award. Drexel’s Bruiser Flint was named coach of the year, and James Madison’s Julius Wells was named rookie of the year.

SCOREBOARD PEEKING commences in earnest this week around the Colonial Athletic Association. Seven teams are jammed within two games of first place with three conference games to play. The top four earn first-round byes in the CAA tournament. “It makes for a very, very interesting and complicated ending,“ George Mason coach Jim Larranaga said. “The number of potential ties has to be ridiculous.“

BOSTON—Scott Rodgers scored 17 points, including 15 in the second half, to lead Drexel to a 62-58 come-from-behind win over Northeastern tonight. The Dragons (13-10, 9-5 Colonial Athletic Association) went on two big second-half runs. After trailing 31-18 with 17:20 remaining, Drexel scored 15 straight over the next five minutes to take a two-point lead. With the game tied at 42 with just over four minutes left, the Dragons went on a 17-6 run to take a 59-48 lead and put the game away.

Joey Rodriguez has been thinking about playing defense for the Virginia Commonwealth basketball team. He should be so forgetful about his offense more often.