Blue Hens score dominant CAA Tournament win, but much tougher test looms vs. Hofstra

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Delaware started its Coastal Athletic Association basketball schedule with a one-sided win over Hampton in January.

The Blue Hens’ postseason began with an equally dominant display at the Entertainment & Sports Arena Saturday night.

Now all Delaware needs is a different sequel.

Hampton offered little resistance to Delaware’s bid to advance, as the Hens built a double-digit advantage 6½ minutes into their CAA Tournament second-round matchup and watched it grow in an 80-50 victory.

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Sixth-seeded Delaware (19-13) advanced to Sunday’s 8:30 p.m. quarterfinal against No. 3 Hofstra (19-12), which enjoyed a second-round bye. Hofstra downed Delaware 76-71 in their lone regular-season contest Jan. 6 on Long Island. Delaware trimmed a 16-point deficit to three late in that game but fell short.

That was two days after Delaware hammered Hampton 80-53 at the Carpenter Center, so this time the Hens will hope for and expect a better carryover. Hofstra features CAA Player of the Year Tyler Thomas, third nationally in scoring with 22.3 points per game.

""Super talented offensively," Delaware coach Martin Ingelsby said of Thomas. "Kind of a three-headed monster with him, [Jaquan] Carlos and [Darlinstone] Dubar. So we gotta be able to limit them. We've gotta be great on the defensive end and then how do we be efficient offensively?"

The 14^th-seeded Pirates (9-24) stayed alive with a 56-55 win over No. 11 Elon in Friday’s CAA Tournament opening round, which was their fourth win in six games. But Delaware never gave Hampton a chance, and the Pirates undermined their own cause with 14.7-percent field-goal aim in the first half compared to Delaware’s 63.3.

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"We continue to preach giving up a good one to get a great one," Ingelsby said. "I thought our starting group really set the tone with sharing the basketball . . . We were able to do it because our defense was so good and so solid. Two years ago when we won it we held three teams under 60 points and that was kinda my message to our group this week."

The night finished with Delaware shooting 48.3 percent (28-for-58) to Hampton's 23.4 (15-for-64), the lowest in tournament history. Beyond the arc, Delaware was 9-for-21 compared to Hampton's 6-for-31.

George Drumgoole Jr. led Delaware with 17 points, Cavan Reilly scored 14, Jalun Trent had 12 and Jyare Davis and Niels Lane nine each. Tyler Houser had nine rebounds. Drumgoole, Davis and Christian Ray played just 16 minutes each and Lane 12.

Ingelsby quickly dipped into his depth, knowing the tougher test looming in 24 hours, as the Hens built a 51-16 halftime bulge and eventually led by as many as 47 points (70-23) Delaware would also need four games to win the tournament, not three as in 2022.

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Substitutes Kobe Jerome (25 minutes), who "earned it with how he practiced this week," Ingelsby said, and Houser (29) eventually played more than the starters. Walk-ons Brandon Baffone from Salesianum and O.D. Ogunbo played the final 6:55, with Ogundo draining a 3-pointer to his teammates' delight.

Sunday’s quarterfinals begin with top-seeded Charleston (24-7) against No. 8 Monmouth (18-14) at noon; No. 4 UNC-Wilmington (21-9) vs. No. 5 Towson (19-13) at 2:30; and No. 2 Drexel (20-11) facing No. 7 Stony Brook (18-14) at 6.

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.

This article originally appeared on Delaware News Journal: Delaware Blue Hens drub Hampton Pirates in CAA Basketball Tournament