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Sean Brooks and Tim Whitworth each scored 15 points and Drexel had its strongest defensive effort of the season to beat Hartford 72-52 in the first round of the FIU Holiday Classic on Saturday.
Drexel (4-4) will play host Florida International -- a 70-51 winner over Sam Houston St. -- in Sunday's championship game. Hartford will play Sam Houston St. in the consolation contest.
The Dragons held Hartford to 30.6 percent shooting from the field in the game, a season-best for Drexel, which allowed its first seven opponents to shoot 42.1 percent.
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Phil Goss had 14 points and Beshir Mason had 11 points and five assists for
Drexel.
Jerell Parker had 15 points and Ryan Stys added 10 for Hartford (2-4), which lost its fourth straight. The Hawks had not played in 14 days before Saturday and fell behind quickly, trailing 45-31 at halftime.
The second half
wasn't much better for Hartford, which made only eight of its 34 shots from
the floor in the final 20 minutes.
North Carolina's first loss in the Roy Williams era was a tough one to swallow.
But the ninth-ranked Tar Heels (6-1) and their coach hope the team learned an important lesson from a tough triple-overtime defeat to Wake Forest as it prepares to take on North Carolina-Wilmington (4-3) on Sunday at the Myrtle Beach Convention Center.
``One of the things
you have to do is learn how to win,'' Williams said after his team squandered
several opportunities to put the Demon Deacons away in a 119-114 loss last Saturday.
``Learning how to win means making the correct plays down the stretch. Learning
how to win means doing all the little things and doing them to the best of your
ability at the end. Learning how to win is playing with poise and making those
plays regardless of the score or how much pressure somebody may be feeling.''
Williams, who left Kansas to restore the North Carolina program to its previous glory, led the Tar Heels to six straight wins before watching them fall apart down the stretch in their Atlantic Coast Conference opener.
``We had many opportunities,'' North Carolina junior guard Melvin Scott said. ``We had the game won and made stupid plays.''
Rashad McCants scored 25 points and Raymond Felton added 22 for North Carolina, which missed several key free throws during the multiple-overtime thriller.
``It was devastating to lose,'' sophomore guard David Noel said. ``Anytime you go into a game, you want to win it. Especially a game like this that can probably be an instant classic, you want to be the team on top. So, it is definitely a devastating loss.''
Felton, who also handed out a season-high 13 assists against the Demon Deacons, is likely looking forward to Sunday's game as he starred at Latta High School in South Carolina before arriving in Chapel Hill last year.
However, his homecoming will take a back seat to the Tar Heels' desire to bounce back from their first defeat of the season.
``The one thing we've got to do is pull together, make sure we focus on what's going right and what's going wrong with our team, and not each one of us,'' Williams said.
UNC-Wilmington has dropped two of three since a 3-1 start, including Monday's 65-61 setback to Charlotte.
Sophomore forward Taylor Lay scored 16 points on 6-of-11 shooting for the Seahawks, who will be facing North Carolina for the first time.
Junior guard Ed Spencer is the only Seahawk averaging double figures in scoring with 11.3 points per game.