Drexel burns Binghamton

VESTAL, N.Y. - The Drexel University men's basketball team relaxed this time.

Senior forward Samme Givens scored a team-high 15 points and hauled down six rebounds, and freshman guard Damion Lee scored 12 points as the Dragons defeated Binghamton, 68-44, in a nonconference game in the Events Center last night.

The Dragons (6-4) grabbed a 14-point halftime lead and added to it in the second half as they took advantage of an inexperienced Bearcats team - one of nine Division I teams without a single senior on its roster - mired in the longest losing streak in program history, 10 games.

Mark Macon, Temple's all-time leading scorer, is in his third season as coach of the Bearcats (0-10), his first full season since losing the interim tag from his title in February.

After watching a 17-point, second-half lead evaporate in its last game, Saturday against Bradley, before holding on to win by 73-68, Drexel had no such trouble maintaining its grip on this contest.

"Tonight was pretty good," Drexel coach Bruiser Flint said. "I thought everybody kept their focus pretty much when they were in the game, and we guarded them. The second half, we played them a little more fullcourt to sort of get them out of their rhythm. I thought we let them run a little bit too much offense in the first half."

The Dragons led by 22-12 after a dunk by Daryl McCoy in transition, but the Bearcats went on a 6-0 run to make it 22-18 with 5 minutes, 32 seconds remaining in the first half.

With Drexel leading by 30-22 and 1:41 showing on the clock in the first half, Givens made a layup and a free throw, then Chris Fouch was fouled with 4.2 seconds left while shooting a three-pointer. Fouch made all three free throws for his only points of the game, giving the Dragons a 36-22 halftime advantage.

Binghamton scored only five points in the first 9 minutes of the second half, while the Dragons' lead expanded to 54-27 after a pair of Givens free throws with 11:40 remaining. Drexel led by as many as 28 in the second half, and the Bearcats never posed a serious threat after halftime.

"Of course, it definitely rolled into your mind when you give up a big lead like that [against Bradley]," Givens said. "Your coaches get on you, especially the type of coach we got. He yells and he screams a lot. Our job tonight was to come out focused, come out playing our game. Once we got a big lead, we knew that we had to keep pushing and keep going hard and not let up on the gas pedal, so we could finish out and get the other guys [bench players] into the game, so they could have some fun before the holidays."

Drexel will be off until Wednesday, when it hosts Fairfield.