Drexel Women Get No. 2 Seed In Conference Tourney

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- The Drexel University women's basketball team opens play in the Colonial Athletic Association Tournament this evening in Upper Marlboro, Maryland.

The Dragons will open things up in the quarterfinals against Towson, who beat William and Mary on Wednesday, 71-65, in a first-round match-up.

Drexel is the #2 seed in the field (James Madison is the #1), and head coach Denise Dillon is pleased her team was able to earn that high a slot.

"We hit a couple bumps in the road early," Dillon tells KYW Newsradio. "Got it together for conference play. Obviously, it's not easy, night in, night out, you are fighting for a spot. It came down to us controlling our own destiny. JMU had secured that #1 spot early, so then it was us and Hofstra fighting for that #2 seed. We had to win our last couple of games to get it outright and we did just that."

Listen to the entire interview with Drexel's Denise Dillon:

Drexel is 17-12 on the season. Towson is now 7-23. The Dragons swept the two regular season match-ups between the teams, including a 74-33 blowout win in the regular season finale on March 2nd.

"I think we took advantage around the basket (in that game) and that was really important for us," Dillon says. "I think if you're counting on the outside shot as much as we do, you can fall into lapses where you are shooting a low percentage. So when we started inside, getting some high percentage shots, some big buckets, it opened up the floor for us and the kick outs were there as well. Everyone started feeling comfortable."

Dillon talks about what they have to do on the defensive end to have success.

"They're very guard oriented," Dillon says. "So it's important to us to be able to play our 2-3 (zone defense) against them to eliminate the dribble drive offense that they like to run. Just to keep them contained. So for us to be successful against a team like Towson, we really have to rely on our zone."

The winner of this game plays the winner of #3 Hofstra and #6 Northeastern in the semifinals on Friday.

Drexel and Towson will tip-off at 5:00pm on Thursday.