Drexel (8-11 overall, 2-4 CAA) split a pair of road games last week. First, the Dragons picked up arguably their biggest win of the season on Thursday night, using a frantic comeback to snap the College of Charleston's 22-game home winning streak, with Drexel winning 79-78. Then, the Dragons lost on the road to UNCW on Saturday, 97-83.
"We've really struggled getting off to good starts," said head coach Zach Spiker. "We had a better start in both games down on that southern CAA swing. (UNCW) had some really good pressure in the second half. We had a handful of unforced turnovers in that game. I don't think it had much to do with (UNCW), it had a lot to do with us just (needing to be) being better with the basketball. (Had) we done that, we could've put ourselves in a better situation."
Drexel got a boost in those games with the return of junior guard Kurk Lee from injury. He had five points in the win over Charleston and then really hit his stride at UNCW, pouring in 19 points in 25 minutes off the bench.
"It's a great shot in the arm at this time of the year to get another guy that can score it," Spiker said. "Kurk has the ability to do that. He has some veteran experience. All those things are important and to add him into the fold, maybe it's a few less minutes for a couple other guys, but the reality is we probably had some guys playing too many minutes. It makes us better defensively, makes us a little more locked in, and we need him. We're better when he's out there; we're better when he's an option to play."
Towson will bring a 5-13 record into Thursday night's game (1-4 CAA), and the Tigers have dropped five games in a row.
"Towson is always one of the nation's best rebounding teams," Spiker added. "They play extremely hard and coach (Pat) Skerry certainly has the mantra of 'Towson Tough' and what all that involves. We've got to be ready to rebound the basketball. We've got to be ready to take care of the basketball. We had a big, big lead last year (against Towson) in our building (18 points) and didn't take care of it. We didn't take good shots and we didn't check out and they came all the way back and won the basketball game. So we need to do all those things. We need to take care of it; we need to take good shots and we absolutely have to rebound the basketball."
Thursday night's game will start at 7 p.m.