With a tough loss against Drexel yesterday, the Huskies were on the search for revenge. On paper, it seemed like NU won in all the categories, keeping Drexel at 31% for field goals and having 35 rebounds to the 24 of the Dragons. However, despite the large lead in the opening half, the Dragons made the comeback to sweep the series. 

From the get-go, it seemed like a different Husky team than who played last night, forcing turnovers, poorly executing shots and sloppy passes to no man’s land from the Dragons (8-5, 5-3 CAA).  

With a couple of hot-potato passes from freshman guard Maddie Vizza to graduate student Ayanna Dublin to freshman forward Leyla Öztürk, the Huskies scored the opening basket with an easy layup. Senior guard Stella Clark put in the easy corner triple to regain the 11-9 lead to end the opening frame. 

NU started the second quarter with a strong spell as Clark grabbed the offensive rebound under the basket off freshman forward Mide Oriyomi’s shot and put it in with a trademark reverse layup. The Huskies offensive game forced Drexel to sacrifice the early timeout of this contest in what seemed to be a complete reversal of yesterday’s game. 

“We made a couple of adjustments defensively and we kept them in front and took away the easy shots,” said head coach Kelly Cole.

The Huskies made their last five field goal attempts, padding the increasing 22-11 lead. The quarter was peppered with defensive stops as Oriyomi pulled out a block to deny the Dragons and was followed by freshman forward Izzy Larsen, forcing a turnover in the paint. 

With a possession call being reversed and a blocking foul on Oriyomi, Drexel went on a 7-0 run, putting them within four points to end the opening half 27-23. 

With a little more than three minutes of scoreless play by both sides, a foul on Öztürk sent the Dragons to the charity stripe where they converted both to cut the lead in half, 27-25. Oriyomi countered with a triple assisted by Larsen to continue padding the NU lead. 

However, the lead deteriorated as the Huskies went on a scoring drought and Drexel regained the lead they lost in the opening quarter, 33-31. Vizza went on her very own 5-0 run to regain the Husky lead but, once again, not for long as both teams headed into the break tied at 40. 

Vizza sank the early triple and Clark pushed past the hole between two defenders for the layup in a fast-paced final quarter sending the Dragons on a scoreless two minutes. Once the Dragons ended their drought, the teams went back and forth, bucket-for-bucket until the last few seconds of the game.

With less than two seconds left in the game and Drexel up by a bucket, the last-ditch effort by the Huskies fell short, 58-56. 

“Unfortunately they came up with some really big plays at the end and we couldn’t connect. But we just have to be positive,” Vizza said. 

Notable players for the Huskies included Clark with 15 points, eight rebounds and seven assists, coupled with junior guard Kendall Currence who had 13 points and five rebounds. Vizza scored her career-high of 11 points and this game snapped the seven-game double digits streak of Oriyomi. 

The Huskies (3-8, 2-6 CAA) will face top-ranked and undefeated in CAA-play Delaware (12-1, 9-0 CAA) next weekend in Newark at 1 p.m., a team they have faced and lost to twice already this season.