Drexel has remained a winning force in women’s hoops despite having a ‘target on our back’
The Dragons have won two CAA championships and made a pair of NCAA Tournament appearances. Now, as winners in six of their last seven games, they appear poised to replicate that success
In the case of women’s basketball this season, there have been two sides to Drexel’s coin.
One side suggests that the Dragons are right where they should be, since preseason polls predicted them finishing second in the Coastal Athletic Association. Through 11 games, their prediction has been correct. The Dragons are 8-3 (12-9 overall) in conference play, one game back of first place.
The other side will suggest that Drexel is defying the odds and relies a great deal on the production of Amaris Baker, who is the leading scorer in the CAA with 18.2 points per game.
Despite its slow start, this team undeniably is continuing the program’s winning reputation. In the past four seasons, the Dragons have won two CAA championships and made a pair of NCAA appearances. Now, as winners in six of their last seven games, they appear poised to replicate that success.
To sustain a winning culture and program over the better part of two decades, head coach Amy Mallon points to one key above the rest: consistency.
“It’s definitely the approach. It seems so simple the word consistency and you hear it all the time,” said Mallon. “When I took over the head position here at Drexel, everyone was like, ‘What are you going to change?’ Why would I change something that’s working? We’ve built this program on consistency and doing the little things right.”
That consistency has led to there being five coaches in the CAA who have yet to beat Drexel. No statistic exemplifies Drexel’s dominance quite like this one: after beating UNC Wilmington on Feb. 9, it now has a 26-game winning streak that has spanned five Seahawks coaches.
A byproduct of the Dragons’ success is that they are going to be on the receiving end of each opponent’s best effort.
“We do have a target on our back, and everybody gives us their best shot because we are the defending champs,” Mallon said. “We’ve already lost a couple of close games in conference, and when these teams beat us, they celebrate it like they won a championship. That’s my reminder to my team. We can still have the underdog mentality but understand teams are coming in here. So if you don’t start off ready to go right from the tip, it’s going to be a hard grind.”
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While the Dragons are the defending champions, they came into the season far from a finished product. There were two new members added to the starting lineup through the transfer portal, and returning players had to adjust to new roles. The team was going to have to find a new formula to win.
So far, the Dragons have used defense to smother opponents and then does just enough offensively to win the game.
“The main [adjustment] is our ability to force a team to guard all five people on the floor,” Mallon said. “Amaris Baker is our leading scorer, and she’s capable of doing that, but everyone else on the floor is just as capable, and I think those are the pieces that we’re still getting better at. When I see four people scoring double figures, I know we’re moving in the right direction.”
Secondary scoring is a tricky thing to facilitate if players don’t have the confidence to take an offensive possession into their hands and score. Especially when sharing a court with a top-50 scorer in Division I, it can be easy to defer on an open look to get the ball back in Baker’s hands. That is where Mallon, her coaching staff, and even other players can coach beyond X’s and O’s.
“I made a point of just telling my starters before the last game, ‘You guys are all more than capable. We’re not deferring to anybody,’” Mallon said. “We know what Amaris can do; we know what Chloe [Hodges] can do. We have to know each other’s strengths. So when we’re in position in the game, we have to continue to force the other team to guard everybody. [When a team can do that] it’s really an art because you can’t just zone in on one person. We have to be patient in what we do because when we really can see what the other teams are giving us, then we’re going to be able to take advantage.”
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Drexel will face a gauntlet of CAA teams with championship aspirations to close out the season. A Valentine’s Day game against William & Mary (6 p.m., FloCollege) followed by Elon (Feb. 23), Monmouth (Feb. 28) and Campbell (March 2) await the Dragons.
A loss or two against these top teams could send Drexel from second to the middle of the CAA table.
Consistency will be key for the Dragons over the next three weeks. Luckily, it is something they’ve built a program on perfecting.