Georgia State

Joe Dukes scored 11 of his 15 points in the second half to lead Georgia State to a 54-41 victory over Delaware yesterday in the first round of the Colonial Athletic Association Tournament in Richmond, Va. Dukes grabbed 12 rebounds and dished out five assists for the Panthers (12-19), who advanced to the quarterfinals to play top-seeded Virginia Commonwealth today. Leonard Mendez had 12 points for the Panthers. Rashad Chase also had 13 rebounds for Georgia State, which outrebounded the Blue Hens, 45-34.

If Drexel played Georgia State last night the same way it played during its five-game winning streak, the Dragons were expected to win. Drexel had problems shooting, but it still prevailed, 64-47, at the Daskalakis Athletic Center. The Dragons (11-8, 7-3 Colonial Athletic Association) shot only 30 percent from the field. They didn't score a field goal after Gerald Colds' three-pointer with 6 minutes, 19 seconds remaining gave them a 54-33 advantage. But down the stretch, Drexel shot 10-for-10 from the free throw line (21 of 24 for the game)

A struggling Georgia State squad visited Drexel tonight at the Daskalakis Athletic Center, where the home team took the floor as the hottest team in the Colonial Athletic Association. About 10 minutes in, the visitors were in an insurmountable hole and well on their way to a 64-47 defeat. The Dragons, who were up by 15 points at intermission, had a 47-29 lead with 9 minutes, 17 seconds remaining. In winning its sixth consecutive game, Drexel improved to 11-8 overall and 7-3 in the league.

Drexel turned aside vastly improved Georgia State, 74-65, last night at the Daskalakis Athletic Center for their third Colonial Athletic Association win in four games. Jasmina Rosseel, a native of Belgium, set a career milestone with a game-high 20 points, one more than her previous best. She also tied a personal mark in three-pointers, connecting on five of 11 attempts. Gabriela Marginean added 18 points. Andrea Peterson was also in double figures for the Dragons (8-7, 3-1 CAA)

Just when it looked as if Drexel had found its hot hand, Georgia State found one of its own. Tramayne Hawthorne's second-half shooting display helped give the Dragons a seven-point lead, but Leonard Mendez answered with 10 straight for the Panthers to give them a lead they never gave up in a 64-58 win last night. Drexel (9-13, 2-8 Colonial Athletic Association) trailed for most of the first half, but charged back early in the second on the shoulders of Hawthorne, who came out of the half with only two points but hit four three-pointers early to spark the Dragons to a 15-3 run. That stretch put Drexel up, 49-42, with less than 10 minutes on the clock, and the Panthers knew they had to do something different.

A pair of scoring-challenged teams met last night in a Colonial Athletic Association game at the Daskalakis Athletic Center. Host Drexel, which had dropped seven of nine games in which it put fewer than 60 points on the scoreboard, used perhaps its most impressive rally of the season to gain control in the second half. But the Dragons still had to withstand a late run by Georgia State to claim a 58-51 victory. The teams totaled 43 points during the first 20 minutes. The Panthers were down by five at halftime.

THE BOOK, quite telling, was found amid the newly purchased Ikea furnishings and the latest electronic appliances inside the tony Center City apartment. Its title - "The Art of Cheating: A Nasty Little Book for Tricky Little Schemers and Their Hapless Victims" - may have said it all in the case of Jocelyn Kirsch and Edward K. Anderton. The scheming, the trickery, the artistry described in the title, may have been used by the couple to defraud local businesses, credit-card companies, and their neighbors at the Belgravia House Condos - apparently all in the name of a lavish lifestyle.

The future of Drexel women's basketball is Gabriela Marginean, although the native of Romania is already doing an outstanding job. The 6-foot-1 freshman scored 28 points and grabbed 11 rebounds yesterday to lead the ninth-seeded Dragons to a 73-62 upset of No. 8 Georgia State in the first game of the Colonial Athletic Association tournament at Delaware's Bob Carpenter Center. Marginean scored 16 points in the first half as the Dragons (10-20) led the Panthers, 33-31, at intermission.

Chaz Crawford's season has mostly been about defense and rebounding, but yesterday the Drexel forward had no choice but to contribute on offense. Frank Elegar, the Dragons' leading scorer, was in foul trouble and guard Dominick Mejia was contributing very little, so the senior Crawford jumped into the breach with a season-high 17 points on a season-high 12 shots from the floor. There was a point in the Dragons' more-difficult-than-it-should-have-been 61-55 win over Georgia State at which Drexel coach Bruiser Flint looked at the 6-10 Crawford, then looked at the 6-foot-7 players trying to guard him in the post, and demanded that Crawford score.