Daskalakis Athletic Center

Looking to get back into the win column last night at the Daskalakis Athletic Center, Drexel's basketball team was tied with George Mason with six minutes left. That was as close as the Dragons got. The visitors took control as Patriots forward Folarin Campbell made two big shots to help his team break the game open in a 75-65 victory. Drexel, which lost its sixth straight game, is 9-15 overall and 2-10 in the Colonial Athletic Association. With its seventh win in eight games, George Mason improved to 17-6 and 9-3, moving into a tie for second with William & Mary.

Kamile Nacickaite scored 26 points to lead Drexel past Bucknell, 67-54, in a women's basketball game at the Daskalakis Athletic Center yesterday. Gabriela Marginean added 24 in a win that improves the Dragons to 5-4. Joyce Novacek scored 17 points and Cosima Higham added 11 to lead Bucknell (2-8).

Hollie Mershon scored 15 points Thursday night as Drexel opened play in the Women's NIT with a 59-50 victory over Iona (20-13) at the Daskalakis Athletic Center. Taylor Wootton scored 13 points and Fiona Flanagan 11 for Drexel (23-10), which will host Harvard on Saturday at 7 p.m.

Who: La Salle (7-4) vs. Cornell (9-2) When: 4 o'clock Where: Tom Gola Arena TV/Radio: None/WHAT (1340-AM) Who: Drexel (6-6) vs. Rhode Island (9-1) When: 7 o'clock Where: Daskalakis Athletic Center TV/Radio: Comcast Network/ www.drexeldragons.com Who: Saint Joseph's (4-6) at Siena (7-4) When: 7 o'clock Where: Times Union Center, Albany, N.Y. TV/Radio: None/WNTP (990-AM)

Drexel will host Kent State in an ESPN BracketBusters game on Friday, Feb. 18, at 9 p.m. in the Daskalakis Athletic Center. ESPNU will televise the game. After winning at Hofstra on Saturday, the Dragons are 14-7 this season, 6-5 in the Colonial Athletic Association. Dartaye Ruffin scored 15 points and had 14 rebounds in the win. The freshman was named the CAA Rookie of the Week for the fourth time this season. Kent State (14-7, 5-2 Mid-American Conference) has won five of its last six games; it has a victory this season over South Florida, and its losses include a three-point decision to Florida.

Antonia Gale's 18 points weren't enough as Georgetown defeated La Salle, 71-40, in women's basketball action at the Tom Gola Arena yesterday. Gale was the only player to reach double figures for the Explorers (1-6). She shot 3-for-5 from the field and 11-for-12 from the line. Sugar Rodgers led Georgetown (6-2) with 17 points and Rubylee Wright added 15. La Salle also announced sophomore forward Jenna Gilbert's intent to transfer at the end of the semester. In five games this season, Gilbert scored 17 points and pulled down 12 rebounds in 14 minutes.

It was a festive occasion yesterday for the Drexel University community as well as University City. Drexel president Constantine Papadakis and Gen. Jessica L. Wright of the Pennsylvania National Guard signed a 50-year lease that gave the school the go-ahead to turn the Philadelphia Armory into a basketball arena and convocation center. The event was held at the armory, which is on 33d street, across the street and one block up from the 2,300-seat Daskalakis Athletic Center, where the Dragons' men's and women's teams now play.

DREXEL HAS received an oral commitment for next basketball season from a 6-4 point guard described by his high school coach as possibly "one of the biggest steals in the country. " Last season as a junior, Major Canady averaged 13 points, 10 rebounds and 13 assists for Kiski Prep in Saltsburg, Pa., east of Pittsburgh. Coach Daryn Freedman said Monday he also averaged "nine to 10 steals. " Freedman, a former student manager for coach Bruiser Flint when the latter coached at Massachusetts, said Stanford, Pittsburgh, South Florida and Virginia Tech were pursuing Canady.

Ryan Wittman scored 18 points and Jeff Foote added 15 yesterday as Cornell registered a 61-54 victory over Drexel at the Daskalakis Athletic Center. Wittman, the son of former NBA player Randy Wittman, went 2 for 4 from three-point range for the Big Red (5-2), who finished 6 for 14 from beyond the arc in the Legends Classic. Cornell, which won its third straight game, also hit 9 of 11 free throws, which helped overcome 40.4 percent shooting from the field (23 for 57). Drexel (3-4)

Solomon Alibi equaled a career high with 22 points to lead Florida State to a 76-72 victory over Auburn last night in Tallahassee, Fla. Alibi scored all but two of his points in the second half but got little help as the Seminoles (9-2) blew a 12-point lead. Alibi, in one stretch, scored nine straight points, including a pair of free throws that broke the last of two second- half ties at 63-63. Frankie Sullivan and DeWayne Reed scored 17 points each for Auburn (5-5). Elsewhere: Marquis Hall scored 17 points, propelling Lehigh to a 66-58 victory over Dartmouth in Bethlehem, Pa. . . . Jake Cohen scored a career high of 23 points, and Steve Rossiter had 12 points and 11 rebounds to lead Davidson in a 90-49 rout of the College of New Jersey in Davidson, N.C. Women Princeton 66, Drexel 49 - Niveen Rasheed scored 27 points to send Princeton (8-2)

FOR THE FIRST time since the Villanova men's team won the NIT in 1994, a Division I Philadelphia team ended its season with a national tournament championship. And the Drexel women's team got to cut down its own nets, to boot. The Dragons won the Women's National Invitation Tournament on Saturday with a 46-43 victory over visiting Utah before a packed house of 1,922 at the Daskalakis Athletic Center. All-CAA guard Hollie Mershon's go-ahead layup with 20.6 seconds remaining and one-and-one with 9.7 seconds left led to Utah's failed three-point attempt at the buzzer, which triggered the final court-storming episode of the season in a city that featured a number of them.

The Drexel women's basketball team is in a class all its own. Hollie Mershon scored the game's final four points as the Dragons beat Utah, 46-43, in Saturday's WNIT final at the Daskalakis Athletic Center. The win enabled Drexel to become Philadelphia's first Division I women's team to win a national postseason tournament. The Dragons (28-10) also finished their campaign with the most single-season wins in school history. The Utes finished 23-14. Mershon's layup with 20.6 seconds left gave Drexel a 44-43 advantage.

THE DREXEL Dragons have done it again. After claiming their first-ever SEC victory against Auburn last Saturday, the Drexel women knocked off another big-time SEC program, defeating the Florida Gators, 67-57, in the Women's National Invitational Tournament semifinals Wednesday night at a lively Daskalakis Athletic Center. "We feel the CAA is owed a little bit more respect," said head coach Denise Dillon, who is in her 10th year with the program. "I think we have shown that the CAA is better than they may be given credit.

MARCH MADNESS didn't totally end in Philadelphia with the completion of La Salle's stunning run in the men's NCAA Tournament. The Drexel women's team has extended its postseason into April, and Saturday will host Utah in the championship game of the Women's National Invitation Tournament. The 3 p.m. game will be televised by CBS Sports Network from the Daskalakis Athletic Center. It will mark the first Division I postseason championship game for the Drexel women's program. The Dragons (27-10)

Drexel has made it to the semifinals of the WNIT on the strength of its defense. The Dragons have compiled a 19-1 record in games in which they have limited their opponents to 50 points or fewer. Florida has done the opposite thanks to a potent offense. The Gators have averaged 70.9 points overall and 78.0 points in four WNIT victories. The two styles will clash Wednesday night at the Daskalakis Athletic Center when the Dragons (26-10) and the Gators (22-14) meet with a trip to the WNIT championship game on the line.

Hollie Mershon scored 15 points Thursday night as Drexel opened play in the Women's NIT with a 59-50 victory over Iona (20-13) at the Daskalakis Athletic Center. Taylor Wootton scored 13 points and Fiona Flanagan 11 for Drexel (23-10), which will host Harvard on Saturday at 7 p.m.

* La Salle is in great shape for a top-four Atlantic 10 finish and a first-round bye in the conference tournament. Duquesne, which has lost 14 of 15 (how did it ever win at Temple?), is at Gola Saturday. The Explorers average 1.1 points per possession, 40th nationally. The Dukes allow 1.05 PPP, 247th nationally. This does not look complicated. * After the giveaway in Newark, N.J., on Monday (why exactly was Villanova fouling Seton Hall at the end?), the Wildcats had the whole week to think about it. Sunday, they visit Pittsburgh, which busted up a 43-43 tie at the Pavilion in mid-January by scoring the game's final 15 points.

In a basketball game that could have been put away in the first half, Drexel needed much longer before finally settling matters. Leading by 33-23 at halftime, the Dragons saw Hofstra pull within five points with less than eight minutes remaining before scoring a 63-54 win Monday in a Colonial Athletic Association game at the Daskalakis Athletic Center. Drexel is 11-15 overall and 7-7 in the CAA. Hofstra fell to 6-21, 3-11. Damion Lee scored 17 points for Drexel while Frantz Massenat added 16 and Derrick Thomas 11. Thomas has scored in double figures in six consecutive games.

Bruiser Flint never knows what he's going to see when Drexel takes the court, but he liked what he saw a lot better Sunday night than in his team's previous game. The Dragons got balanced scoring, led by 14 points from point guard Frantz Massenat, and bounced back from a disheartening loss to defeat James Madison, 60-48, Sunday in a Colonial Athletic Association game at the Daskalakis Athletic Center. Three nights earlier, the Dragons (10-14, 6-6 CAA) played poorly on defense and lost at home to Old Dominion, 78-66, only the Monarchs' third win in 23 games.