Drexel tops Penn, 77-56

The large contingent of Drexel students who walked the handful of blocks from their school to watch the Dragons take on neighboring Penn at the Palestra on Saturday night made their presence known right away.

Wearing bright yellow shirts and seated behind the basket nearest the Drexel bench, the Dragon faithful stood en masse and unleashed chants even before the starting lineups were introduced. And while the names of the Penn players were announced, the visiting spectators turned their backs to the proceedings.

When it was over, the Drexel fans did not go quietly. They were celebrating a 77-56 victory that was the Dragons' fourth straight over Penn, which still holds a 15-8 lead in the rivalry.

With the win, Drexel improved to 2-0. Penn fell to 1-2.

The 19-point margin of victory was the largest for either team in the series since Penn won by that many in 2006.

"The last couple of games against them went down to the wire," said Drexel coach Bruiser Flint, whose team outrebounded Penn, 42-19. "We played well today. I thought we really bore down at the end of the first and the beginning of the second half."

With reserve guard Chris Fouch scoring 16 of his game-high 26 points during the first 20 minutes, Drexel led by five at intermission. At the start of the second half, the Dragons broke the game open with an 11-0 run that had Penn trailing, 49-33, with 14 minutes, 34 seconds left to play.

The Quakers did not get closer than 14 points the rest of the way.

Drexel guard Derrick Thomas matched his career high with 23 points. Forward Jack Eggleston led Penn with 15 points and guard Zack Rosen had 13.

"We knew this game would be a tough game with their aggressive style of play," said Penn coach Jerome Allen, whose team shot 40.8 percent from the floor to 55.8 percent for Drexel. "They really get after it, and they executed their stuff at both ends of the floor. We struggled."

In the first half, Penn built a 25-19 advantage, but Drexel rallied to knot the score at 25 on a three-point play by 6-foot-8 freshman forward Dartaye Ruffin at the 6:47 mark. The teams traded buckets until a three-point play by Thomas put Drexel ahead, 33-29.

A three-pointer by Fouch with 13 seconds remaining was the last basket of the first half and put the Dragons ahead, 38-33.