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Drexel trounces Niagara, 84-39

In just about every aspect of the game, Drexel had its way with Niagara Tuesday night in a nonleague game at the Daskalakis Athletic Center.

In just about every aspect of the game, Drexel had its way with Niagara Tuesday night in a nonleague game at the Daskalakis Athletic Center.

The Purple Eagles, who compete in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference, started out poorly and never recovered on their way to a one-sided, 84-39 loss to the Dragons of the Colonial Athletic Association.

The Dragons, who had won six straight games before taking a 93-65 shellacking at Syracuse a week ago in their most recent outing, played their first home game in more than two weeks. Drexel is 4-0 at home and 9-2 overall.

The margin of victory was Drexel's largest of the season. The Dragons were 79-39 winners over Binghamton on Nov. 28.

Drexel big men Daryl McCoy and Samme Givens got the rout started and combined to sink 8 of 11 shots as the Dragons built a 29-point halftime lead.

The visitors were in a 62-28 hole with just over 12 minutes remaining, and it was 74-35 with a little more than six minutes to go.

"From the Syracuse game, Coach [Bruiser Flint] told us we would see a lot of teams playing zone," McCoy said. "He said we had to make plays inside."

Reserve guard Chris Fouch led Drexel with 19 points. McCoy finished with 17 points and nine rebounds, Givens had 14 points, and guard Gerald Colds scored 12.

Niagara had won the last three meetings between the teams, including a 76-69 victory last season.

Kashief Edwards, a 6-6 junior forward from Imhotep Charter, started for Niagara and finished with eight points. Neumann-Goretti grad Scooter Gillette, a 6-8 sophomore forward, came off the bench to score five points.

Guiding the Purple Eagles was coach Joe Mihalich, who played at La Salle (Class of '78) and later was an assistant for the Explorers. Among Mihalich's assistants is former St. Joseph's player Phil Martelli Jr., the son of the Hawks' coach.

Mihalich, who is in his 13th season with the Purple Eagles, saw his team lose its third in a row to fall to 3-10.

"I don't think my team knows what toughness is, and the only way to learn is to play teams like Drexel," Mihalich said. "They can make the other team look bad. This was an embarrassing loss for us."

Niagara started out 1 for 18 from the floor, and was down by 25-3 with less than seven minutes remaining in the first half.

The Dragons were ahead by 44-15 at halftime.

"We discussed that I wanted the same type of defensive intensity in the second half as we had in the first half, or I was going to be up yelling and screaming," Flint said of his halftime talk with his team.