Updated as of 12:15 p.m. on March 9 to include dateline.
WASHINGTON -- Despite one of its best regular seasons in years, the Elon University men’s basketball season ended early as it lost to Drexel in the second round of the CAA Tournament 91-74 where the Drexel Dragons dominated from opening tip off.
Elon was coming off a 3-game losing streak amid the absence of two of its top three scorers this season in sophomores Nick Dorn and TJ Simpkins. Simpkins, sporting an ankle brace, made his return against Drexel, hoping to provide a spark to Elon.
Drexel guard Kobe MaGee started the game off with a triple from beyond the arc as he would many times throughout the game. MaGee lit it up in the first half, scoring 19 first half points off four 3-pointers. He accounted for almost half of Drexel’s first half points.
It was a tightly contested first five minutes as both teams played stingy defense. Elon’s three guards employed a 3-man press defense to try and put Drexel’s offense off balance. The stout defense from both sides resulted in some poor shooting to begin the game. Elon began the game 2-8 from the field and relied on drawing fouls to get its points and stay in the game. There was physical play from both sides as 7 fouls occurred between the two teams in the first seven minutes.
Elon then proceeded to miss its last 7 shots from the field and didn’t score a field goal for more than five minutes. However, Drexel didn’t shoot much better and free throws kept Elon in the game. Senior Sam Sherry’s bucket in the paint tied it up at 13-13.
MaGee and the Dragons, however, then went on an 8-0 run over a span of 90 seconds and pushed it to its largest lead of the day so far with 8 points. Jason Drake joined MaGee beyond the arc and knocked down a couple of 3-pointers, scoring 14 points in the first half. Through the first 15 minutes of the game, Drexel was 50% from the 3-point line.
Head coach Billy Taylor said Drexel’s ability to get to the paint and pass it to the corner for 3-pointers allowed this to happen.
“It was drive and kick 3s, and it really just continued to hurt us, whether it was man or zone,” Taylor said. “They really made an emphasis of driving the ball to the paint, and that allowed them to get some threes.”
The Phoenix’s offense stagnated toward the end of the first half and ended the half 29% from the field. Simpkins led the team with 6 points in the first half, but no Elon player scored more than twice from the field. The shots weren’t falling and the physicality of the opening minutes had also gone away as Elon ended the half with only 12 rebounds to Drexel’s 22.
Drexel went on an impressive 17-2 run going into the half, and Drake hit a buzzer beater 3-pointer to end the half — a play that was representative of how the first half went for the Phoenix. Elon went into the half down 23 points, hoping for a spark and a miraculous comeback at CareFirst Arena.
Taylor was disappointed in the team’s performance in the first half.
“They hit us with a couple of runs in the first half, and our inability to guard the basketball early in the game and breakdowns defensively led to catch and shoot opportunities. We were kind of chasing after them,” Taylor said.
The Phoenix came out of the half looking like it was a completely different team. Sherry illustrated the swing of the momentum by starting the half off with an and-1 and got another 3-point play soon after. A fire had been lit inside junior TK Simpkins as he scored 11 points in the first 10 minutes with Sherry adding another 11. They both ended the game with 23 points. TK, who was named to the All-CAA Team, scored with a combination of 3-pointers and tough, physical drives into the paint. Elon jumped off to a 14-2 start and shot 75% from the field in the first 9 minutes. From what was once a 25-point lead, it had now been shaved to a meager 9-point lead as Drexel called a timeout to regroup. The collection of Phoenix fans that had traveled to Washington, D.C., had awoken with every Elon basket eliciting throngs of cheers from fans and the Elon bench alike.
Taylor was proud of how the team responded after halftime but wished it came sooner.
“They played with a tremendous sense of urgency in the second half, offensively and defensively,” Taylor said. “When we're up and we're active, it really gets us going and keeps us engaged.”
Sherry said increased physicality was the key to their strong start in the second half.
“When you get down that much, you have to do whatever you can to make something happen,” Sherry said. “So we went on a run, we started pressing, we started playing a lot more physical. That's the key. You got to sustain it for 40 minutes, got to be better in that aspect.”
The Dragons weren’t so easy to break, however. Yame Butler led the team with 7 points through the first 12 minutes of the half as Drexel’s offense began to get going again. A pair of 3-pointers pushed the lead back to double digits at 64-54 with eight minutes left. Momentum began to swing back towards Drexel as the Dragons went on a 11-0 run amid a barrage of 3-pointers.
The Phoenix went on a 2 and half minute scoring drought and committed four turnovers in a span of three minutes. A 3-pointer by Sherry at the top of the court ended the drought, but the damage was done. A Drexel offense that had been dormant for much of the second half was now alive and well as they pushed it back to a 20-point lead for the first time since the opening minutes of the half. Drexel put the game away in the final minutes and won by 17, ending Elon’s season.
The loss was Sherry’s final game in an Elon jersey, a significant moment for the program as the senior has been a crucial part of the team’s revival under Taylor’s tutelage.
“I think Elon has always treated me well — coach and all the fans and my teammates. This program has always been great to me,” Sherry said. “ I'm appreciative of everything Coach and the program has done for me, and look forward to following them in the coming season.”
Looking towards the future, Taylor is optimistic and happy with how this season progressed, however. He admitted that the program hasn’t had much success in the Division I era but said the team has taken a step forward each year since he has arrived.
“We just got to continue to develop our younger players that we have in our program,” Taylor said. “We don't have a lot of seniors on our roster, so we've still got a lot of young guys that can develop and hopefully grow from this experience. Ultimately, we have to learn how to win in this type of environment in a tournament setting. We have to learn how to win and how to play with that reckless urgency.”