Chalk one up for the little guys.
Division-II Philadelphia University of The Sciences upset Drexel on Garret Kerr's 3-pointer with 2.1 seconds left in a 54-52 win in Philadelphia on Thursday night.
CollegeBasketballTalk reported it's the first home loss by a Division-I team to a non-D I program in 227 games.
It's actually the second D-II win over a D-I school this season — Alaska-Anchorage beat visiting Rice 65-54 in the Great Alaska Shootout on Nov. 29.
At 1-6, Rice isn't very good, but neither is Drexel, which fell to 2-5 with Thursday's surprising loss. Depleted by injuries, the Dragons already lost two players for the season and were without their No. 2 scorer in junior Tavon Allen (knee).
The only reason Drexel even hosted USciences (6-2) was because it couldn't find a D-I school willing to visit this week, so the Dragons invited their Philly D-II neighbor for a game at Drexel's home court, the Daskalakis Athletic Center.
Drexel trailed 28-22 at the half and 49-44 with 3:39 to go, but managed to grab a 52-51 lead with 30 seconds remaining on Damion Lee's layup.
The visiting Devils didn't call a timeout, worked the clock before D-II Preseason Player of the Year Kerr hit the eventual winning basket.
Yeah...that just happened tonight http://t.co/VC4wkYIemZ Congrats @USciencesDevils on the HUGE 54-52 win over NCAA D1 Drexel #CACC
— CACC (@CACC01) December 5, 2014
Kerr, a returning D-II All American, finished with 27 points and 10 rebounds for the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference school. He is the son of former Philadelphia Flyers great Tim Kerr, a three-time NHL All-Star.
"Coach (Dave) Pauley says it's not his philosophy to call timeout in that situation," Kerr told cityofbasketballlove.com. "All that we're really looking for is to get a good look at the basket. ... I don't normally (shoot) with that much arc, but once I let it go, it actually did feel pretty good.
"I was just watching it, watching it, watching it, watching it. It fell like was in the air for 15 seconds. ...
"I don't want to say that we didn't think we could hang with a team like that. It's the first time in my career that we played a Division-I team, preseason or regular season. I was looking forward to the challenge."
Drexel, 16-14 last year and 29-7 with an NIT berth just three seasons ago, is a member of the Colonial Athletics Association.
“Those guys (the Devils) deserved to win,” a dejected Drexel coach James 'Bruiser' Flint told the Triangle, Drexel's independent student newspaper, after the game. “They played harder than us, from start to finish. They came to win the game.
“It was important to them. We told our guys, 'This is a big game for them, you’d better be ready. They’re not bad.' We (weren’t ready), and we lost.”
The Triangle's Adam Hermann shared a few postgame thoughts on Twitter, first on Kerr and then the Dragons.
And of course some others chimed in.
I hope someone somewhere used the headline "Drexel blinded by Science" #SIDproblems
— Mallory Majcher (@m411ory) December 5, 2014
How does Drexel lose to U of sciences at home, they don't even have a logo...... @BarstoolBigCat pic.twitter.com/EILo0zvfeY
— Jeremiah Fredrick (@CjCarlstrom) December 5, 2014
