DARYL MCCOY HAS FIRST CAREER DOUBLE-DOUBLE FOR DREXEL

St Joseph’s coach Phil Martelli had the battle between his Hawks and the Drexel Dragon whittled down to one statistic – rebounds.

“From the first tape that I watched until the pregame talk,” Martelli said, “the number one thing was rebound and we would win the game.”

The Hawks (3-3) lost the battle on the boards and the game itself, falling to the Dragons 62-50 at the Daskalakis Athletic Center on the Drexel campus Wednesday night.

The Dragons (4-1) dominated the glass 46 to 23, with two players (Daryl McCoy and Samme Givens) each recording double figures in rebounds.

“I’ve got some big dudes,” said coach Bruiser Flint when asked about the Dragons rebounding advantage, “and that’s what I tell them to do.”

Chris Fouch scored 17 points off the bench to pace the Dragons while McCoy had 15 to go with his 18 boards – both of which are career-highs for the sophomore. Givens finished one point short of his fourth double-double in five games. He had 10 rebounds.

The Hawks, who saw their three-game winning streak end, where lead by Carl Jones, who had 20 points.

The game started with the Dragons scoring the first six points but the first half was fairly even with the lead changing hands four times. The teams were tied four other times and the Dragons held a 31-28 advantage at the break. The second half was all Drexel,which was up by 13 points for a time.

The Hawks started a stretch where they play four games in a week with nationally ranked arch-rival Villanova next. Then they visit Ivy League favorite Princeton and follow that up by hosting another nationally ranked team in Minnesota.

“One of my closest friends in coaching told me I was nut,” Martelli said when discussing the Hawks schedule, “and Jim Boeheim (the Syracuse coach) has won a lot of games but he told me that [Tuesday].”

Flint was just happy to get a city school on his campus.

“I think it was the right thing to,” said Flint mindful of the fact the the Dragons were the opponent when the Hawks opened Hagan Arena last season. “If we go play them on campus then they should play us on campus. That’s how the college basketball business is supposed to be done.”

Reach Rock Hoffman at Rdvsports@yahoo.com