Towson 85, Delaware 65
Jerrelle Benimon scored 21 points with 12 rebounds and teammate Bilal Dixon added 13 rebounds as host Towson beat Delaware 85-65 on Wednesday in a Colonial Athletic Association contest.
Towson (13-12, 8-4 in the CAA) remained near the top of the league standings as Benimon had 14 points in the first half. Jerome Hairston had 17 points for the Tigers and Marcus Damas had 16 points and eight boards.
Delaware (11-12, 6-4) was paced by Devon Saddler, who had 20 points. The Blue Hens entered the week second in the CAA behind first-place Northeastern.
Towson led 33-23 at halftime and took a 40-23 lead early in the second half on a basket by Hairston as the Tigers scored the first seven points of the half.
A dunk by Damas gave Towson a 47-28 lead with 13:33 to go and a basket by Jamelle Hagins (14 points) of Delaware cut the lead to 60-43 with 8:59 to go.
But Damas made a basket with 5:39 to go to give Towson a 71-51 lead and the Tigers posted one of their biggest wins of the season.
Benimon hit a 3-pointer to give Towson a 30-16 lead with 5:39 left in the first half but the Blue Hens cut it to 33-23 at halftime as Kyle Anderson had nine points for Delaware at the break.
Benimon entered this week third in the nation in rebounds at 11.5 per game and second in double-doubles with 15.
"He is seeing more attention with zones," Towson head coach Pat Skerry said Tuesday of Benimon. "He has meant so much to us. And he guards, too. He has helped us turn things around" after going 1-31 last season.
Delaware had won its last three games and did not trail in the final 33 minutes of any of them. Saddler of the Blue Hens began the game averaging 19.3 points per game, the best in the CAA entering the week.
NOTES: Towson will next play at Georgia State on Saturday while Delaware is at George Mason the same day. ... Georgia State freshman R.J. Hunter was named both freshman and player of the week in the CAA on Monday, the first to pull off the double honor since Drexel's Chris Fouch in 2010. He had 38 points on Saturday against ODU, at the time the most of any freshman in the nation this season. ... ODU fired veteran coach Blaine Taylor on Tuesday. He was replaced on an interim basis by assistant Jim Corrigan, a 1980 graduate of Duke. Delaware hosts ODU on Monday.
