Lee's threes help Drexel to win over George Mason

THE PATTERN for this game was set by the first media timeout on ESPNU. Drexel and George Mason had combined for seven missed shots, two turnovers and two made free throws. The defense was even more crazed than the jammed-in DAC crowd. Offensive players were nudged, shoved and sometimes assaulted. A good shot was one that did not get blocked. Any team that could get a point per minute seemed like it would dominate.

Just when it looked like the team that had the ball last would lose, Drexel freshman Damion Lee, from Baltimore, went off in the final minutes, hitting one big shot after another. He simply could not miss, scoring 13 consecutive points for the Dragons - a layup, a short jumper, then three straight treys in 100 seconds and almost one crazy long three at the shot-clock buzzer as Drexel went from two points behind when the trey barrage began to five in front. Lee finished with a season-high-tying 21 and the Dragons needed them all in their 60-53 win last night.

Did he think he was going to miss?

"I guess the basketball gods were on my side today," Lee said.

Did he think that last one was going in?

"Oh, yes."

That rimmed out, but the damage had been done.

"After I hit the two [threes], I was thinking just get the ball again and shoot it because I felt hot," Lee said. "I knew that if we get the crowd involved, it would be harder for them to score."

The crowd, loud all game, got silly loud after the third trey went down.

"When I was on my visit to schools, Drexel, hands down, has the best crowd in the CAA," Lee said.

Mason had won 10 of 12 and a Colonial-record 18 straight league games dating to last season. Drexel had won eight of nine. This game was important for Mason's streak, critical to the Dragons' season. A loss would have put them three games behind the Patriots after just five games, with no rematch.

Time after time, Drexel seemed to have an opening near the rim in the first half and then out of nowhere came GMU freshman Erik Copes (Imhotep Charter) to spike the shot. The nephew of Patriots assistant Roland Houston (formerly at La Salle and George Washington and a Philly guy himself) had an insane seven blocks - in the first half. As Copes blasted the seventh shot, Houston tried to stifle a laugh on the bench, but could not.

Drexel trailed only 27-22 at the half despite shooting 32.1 percent. The Patriots shot a solid 45.8 percent.

"I won't talk about what I said at halftime," Drexel coach Bruiser Flint said. "If you had been standing next to the stands, you'd have heard me say it as I was walking down . . . I didn't think we played with any energy in the first half. I called them a few choice names . . . I said the game was going to be about what you got in your chest and in your stomach."

First-year Patriots coach Paul Hewitt (the former Villanova assistant who was the head coach at Siena and Georgia Tech) inherited a winning team and has it playing at a very high level - again.

Drexel has more wing athletes than any time in memory. And scoring has not been nearly as difficult this season as others, until last night, when any basket was complicated - until Lee started raining in shots from the right wing across from the Drexel bench.

These teams were picked 1-2 in the preseason, with Drexel first. This game was not at all pretty, but, if you like SEC football, you had to like it.

"They out-toughed us in the last 4 minutes," Hewitt said. "We just got outplayed in those 4 minutes."

GMU (12-5, 4-1 CAA) is a very tough team. Under Flint, Drexel is the epitome of toughness. The Dragons (11-5, 3-2) won this game because of Lee's late shooting and 11-rebound edge and, yes, toughness. They got to 60 despite shooting just 21-for-58 (36.2 percent). Lee was 8-for-14. All others were 13-for-44.

Flint knew what the CAA standings could have looked like but said, "It's still early in the league."

The travel, he said, can be very tough.

"The thing about it is those guys would have been 5-0 so they'd have put their distance [between] not just us, but a couple of other people too," Flint said.

Samme Givens (eight points 10 rebounds) finished two points shy of 1,000. Despite attempting just four shots, he was in the middle of everything.

So, Drexel got VCU and George Mason this week. In this league, that is a very serious daily double. And Drexel is looking more and more like a very serious team.