Drexel Readies For Visit To Temple On Saturday

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- Drexel will return to action on Saturday evening as the Dragons make the short trip to the Liacouras Center for a City 6 match-up with the Temple Owls.

The Dragons are coming off a 74-60 road loss to Robert Morris last time out, a loss which snapped a three-game winning streak. Overall this season, the Dragons are 5-5 under second-year head coach Zach Spiker after going 9-23 a season ago.

"I think we've been pleased with some of the things we've done," he tells KYW Newsradio. "Our ultimate challenge is to perform at a consistent level. If we could be a little bit more consistent, maybe those numbers would change from a record standpoint. But we've shown when we've been able to put things together to be at our best, that we've been able to play with just about any team on our schedule and that's been very encouraging."

Spiker talks about one of the keys to his team's improved play this season.

"We're defending at a better rate than we did last year," he says. "Last year we were 9th and 10th in the league in defensive field goal percentage if you look at the analytics and things like that. This year, today, right now as we stand, we are the fourth best defensive team in our conference. That gives us encouragement that we're moving in the right direction. You can't have success if you're not defending at a high level. I wouldn't say we're at a high level [but] we're defending better than we did last year."

On offense, the Dragons are led by Tramaine Isabell and his 20.8 points per game. A 6-1 guard who transferred in from Missouri, Isabell is also pulling down 8.5 rebounds a game.

"He's a scorer," Spiker says. "He certainly can get to the basket against anybody. He's shooting the ball at a good enough rate from three that you have to honor that. He's got the mentality to make things happen on the offensive end and he has done that."

On Saturday, Drexel will take on a Temple team that is 6-3 and coming off a loss Wednesday night to #1 Villanova.

"If you know Coach [Fran] Dunphy, [assistant coaches Chris Clark and Aaron McKie] and the rest of the staff, that's always going to be a well-coached team," Spiker says."They're always going to be a solid defensive team and offensively consistent. I think offensively, their numbers may be even better this year than they have been in years past. They are a very, very good basketball team that has some experience and maybe they've got some guys that are back that haven't been healthy in the past, but [sophomore guard Quinton] Rose, [junior guard Shizz] Alston, [senior forward] Obi Enechionyia, that's a very, very good group right there for sure."

Saturday's game at the Liacouras Center gets underway at 5:00pm.