Back-to-back champions: Elon women repeat CAA title by slaying Dragons
PHILADELPHIA — Repeating as Colonial Athletic Association Tournament champion brought great pride for the Elon women’s basketball team.
“I’m speechless. It’s just a great feeling being back-to-back champions,” senior guard Shaylen Burnett said. “Just taking it back home to North Carolina and Elon and we just had a great support system behind us and we knew that if we came out here and played Elon basketball that we would get the results that we wanted.”
Elon punched its second consecutive ticket to NCAA Tournament, fighting off a fourth-quarter charge to defeat host Drexel 57-45 and claim the title Saturday afternoon.
Burnett was able to keep her word, vowing that her and the Phoenix squad would win the tournament last week. The Southern Alamance product posted 13 points and five rebounds in the final and was named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Performer.
Elon led 49-31 going to the fourth quarter. For Drexel coach Denise Dillon, that hill was insurmountable at Daskalakis Athletic Center.
“The team was saying we waited just a little too long to try and get that fire going that we needed,” she said. “When shots aren’t falling, you overthink a little bit. Then we let up early on the defensive end to allow them to get the cushion that they needed.”
The Phoenix defense was to thank for maintaining Elon’s double-digit lead for the majority of the game. Holding the Dragons to 25-percent shooting from the field and 18 percent from behind the 3-point arc, Elon’s defense came up time and time again.
“We tried to be disruptive by switching and not only switch to just switch, but switch to deny and take them out of their rhythm,” Elon coach Charlotte Smith said. “They’re a very well-oiled machine and you have to make sure that you’re communicating. For the most part, I feel like we did a really good job of communicating defensively.”
Drexel (26-7) wasn’t going down without a fight. The Dragons went on a 14-2 fourth-quarter run to pull within six. The Phoenix regrouped.
“We knew, because Drexel is such a good team, we knew there were going to be times when they go on runs and we would have to work out of it,” said senior captain Malaya Johnson. “I wasn’t nervous at all because I have faith in what we wanted to accomplish and knew what we needed to do. Just like Shaylen said, we knew we had to stay composed, take care of the ball, handle the pressure and be tough — and I feel like we did that in the end.”
Johnson, an all-tournament selection, scored 14 points and Saadia Munford added 13 points and a team-high eight rebounds.
