Drexel cruises past St. Francis (Pa.)

One of the loudest cheers Sunday afternoon at the Daskalakis Center came midway through the second half, when the public-address announcer informed the crowd that the Dallas Cowboys were losing - which, of course, did not last.

There wasn't an abundance of crowd-pleasing basketball in Drexel's 59-49 win over a struggling but stubborn St. Francis (Pa.) in the getaway game before Christmas break.

"I don't know what adjective to put on the game. Maybe lackluster?" Drexel coach Bruiser Flint said. "We had a couple guys that had their bags packed, ready to get out of here before the game started. That's for sure."

The Dragons (8-3) were coming off one of their worst performances of the season, a 72-55 loss to St. Joseph's on Wednesday. St. Francis (2-9) seemed to be a perfect opponent to get Drexel back on track.

But the undersized Red Flash hung around for most of the game. They knocked down enough three-pointers (eight) to keep the game uncomfortably close until the Dragons held them without a basket for nearly six minutes late in the second half. The Dragons didn't lead by 10 until less than three minutes remained.

St. Francis played just one player over 6-foot-3 - junior Earl Brown (nine points), a Philadelphia native out of Imhotep Charter. Down the stretch, Drexel's size began to win out.

"St. Francis is a very small team. So just get it near the rim - we can jump over top of them and score," Flint said. "But for some reason we didn't play like that for 35 of the 40 minutes."

Frantz Massenat scored eight of his 13 points in the second half. Chris Fouch led the Dragons with 15. Kazembe Abif had nine points and 11 rebounds.

"I thought they outplayed us, to be honest with you," Flint said. "I thought they played tougher. I thought they played harder."