Blue Hens and Hornets meet in basketball: See how Hens needed late surge after DSU rally

DOVER – Delaware had a 6-minute, 20-second stretch during which it didn’t score a point Wednesday night.

In many college basketball games, that might spell doom.

It did not for the Blue Hens, however, at Memorial Hall in their intrastate clash with Delaware State.

A dominant start and take-charge finish allowed Delaware to prevail 78-67 in front of a noisy crowd of 1,544 and the musical din that adds to the challenge for visitors.

The Blue Hens (4-0) will not play another game in the First State until Dec. 20, when Rider visits the Carpenter Center, with seven road tests looming including against Ohio University, Xavier and Rhode Island. Wednesday provided a valuable lesson heading into that stretch.

“I want to be able to use this as a reference point moving forward,” UD coach Martin Ingelsby said, “for digging in and getting one on the road.”

Quite a rally for Hornets

Delaware led 44-28 at halftime and the margin grew to 53-32 on Gerald Drumgoole’s 3-pointer with 15:55 left.

The Hens then endured that scoreless stretch, as enthusiastic defense and aggressive rebounding brought DSU to within 53-44. The Hornets didn’t stop there though as 3-pointers by Deywilk Tavarez and Jevin Munez made it 64-60 with 5:19 left.

Jyare Davis then ignited a Blue Hen resurgence with several baskets as the Hens regained command.

“Playing tough like this early in the season in an in-state rivalry game is very good for us,” Davis said.

Welcomed challenge

The Blue Hens now lead the series 18-5 and are 10-1 all-time in Dover, even though the raucous atmosphere could very easily unsettle a visitor.

Ingelsby said that challenge was good for his team, which added six transfers since last year and is trying to build togetherness and on-court chemistry,

So far so good.

“They manufacture noise as well as any place I’ve ever been to,” he said. “Proud of our group how we stayed together. It wasn’t easy . . . We’re learning a lot about our team and we made plays down the stretch to be able to get it done.”

Balance pays off

One quality that’s been quickly evident is Delaware’s deeper roster with more numerous scoring threats.

Delaware put four scorers in double figures with Davis’ 20 points, Drumgoole’s 16, Christian Ray’s 15 plus nine rebounds and Niels Lane’s 10 points while providing high-flying offensive and defensive work around the rim. And that doesn’t include Tyler Houser’s eight points all in the first 10 minutes.

Starting guard Cavan Reilly was out with an ankle injury.

Where is improvement needed?

Delaware had 15 turnovers to DSU’s nine.

And while the teams each had 31 rebounds, DSU had 14 at the offensive end to fuel its comeback.

“We’re not the biggest team,” Druimgoole said of what paid off down the stretch, “but we’re very physical. We just had to rebound and get stops.”

“This group’s been pretty darn good defensively,” Ingelsby said, “and we got a little sloppy and lazy in the second half and let them get confident. We’ll have to learn from that.”

Hornets making progress

Delaware State went 6-24 last year with four MEAC wins after a 2-25 finish in 2021-22, its first under coach Stan Waterman. While the Hornets are 0-3 this year having also lost at Power-5 foes Penn State and Texas, Waterman sees an improving future.

Limited availability of starters Alston Andrews and Corey Perkins forced him to play some younger Hornets and Waterman liked what he saw. The reliable Muniz had a game-high 23 points, the freshman Tavarez scored 12 and Wesley Oba 10.

“We just gotta get some consistency,” Waterman said. “We’re still up and down, up and down. I thought we played really well for 30 minutes at Texas the other night and thought we could use that as a springboard in this game but the first half was just not very pretty.”

Have an idea for a compelling local sports story or is there an issue that needs public scrutiny? Contact Kevin Tresolini at ktresolini@delawareonline.com and follow on Twitter @kevintresolini. Support local journalism by subscribing to delawareonline.com and our DE Game Day newsletter.