Wins sprout from lower seeds at CAA basketball tourney but Delaware can't pull upset

WASHINGTON, D.C. – A promising start turned out to be quite temporary Sunday night for the Blue Hens at the Entertainment & Sports Arena.

As a result, their 2023-24 basketball season is finished.

Hofstra applied the decisive verdict in the CAA Tournament quarterfinals, taking charge late in the first half and maintaining its supremacy in a 73-58 victory over Delaware.

Sixth-seeded Delaware (19-14) fell one short of the 10th 20-win season in its basketball history.

"The finality of this always stings," Delaware coach Martin Ingelsby said, "because this group really believed we could come down here and play for a championship."

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The Blue Hens had trounced Hampton 80-50 in Saturday night’s second round, limiting the Pirates to a CAA Tournament record low 23.4 shooting percentage. But No. 3 Hofstra (20-12), which enjoyed a second-round bye, was a much more difficult and, ultimately, impossible task.

Hofstra had downed Delaware 76-71 in their lone regular-season meeting Jan. 6 in Hempstead, where the Hens whittled a 16-point deficit down to three in the second half.

Down by that same amount with nine minutes left this time, the Hens could not fashion a similar rally.

"I always think it's more so us," UD second-team All-CAA pick Jyare Davis said. "There were definitely some things we could've done better in terms of taking care of the ball and trusting our offense a little better . . . At the end of the day we were the ones out there so we could've made more plays tonight.''

Hofstra advanced to Monday’s 8:30 p.m. semifinal against No. 7-seeded Stony Brook (19-14), which erased a 13-point second-half deficit to stun No. 2 Drexel 91-88 in double overtime Sunday night. Delaware and Hofstra didn’t tip off until 9:16 p.m. as a result.

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Top-seeded Charleston (25-7) and No. 5 Towson (20-13) advanced in the afternoon games to meet in Monday’s 6 p.m. semifinal. The defending champion Cougars routed No. 8 Monmouth 83-59. Towson avenged a loss last Saturday to UNCW and topped the No. 4 Seahawks 66-56.

Both semifinals will air on the CBS Sports Network, as will Tuesday’s 7 p.m. title game.

The Blue Hens led much of the first 15 minutes, thanks to some strong shooting, especially by Gerald Drumgoole Jr. (13 first-half points). Their largest lead was 29-25.

"All credit to Hofstra," Ingelsby said. "I thought their defense was fabulous. They really kinda disrupted us on the offensive end and caused nine turnovers in the first half."

Hofstra outscored the Hens 10-0 over the final 5:29 and took a 35-29 lead into halftime. Delaware’s final eight second-half possessions were comprised of five missed shots and three turnovers.  Sloppy passing contributed to nine first-half turnovers for Delaware, which had 10.7 per game coming in.

Hofstra then extended its lead by scoring on seven of its first eight second-half possessions to go up 50-36 with 15:15 to go, which resulted in a timeout call by Ingelsby. But Delaware couldn’t summon a comeback, never getting within single digits.

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"We had a couple careless ones," Ingelsby said of the turnovers. "We had a couple where we were trying to be aggressive and just turned it over. I just think we needed to do a better job of staying poised in the moment and being strong with the basketball. Those turnovers allowed them to get out in transition a little bit and get some easy stuff."

The Hens finished with 15 turnovers and shot 40 percent from the field (22-for-55), which wasn’t enough to counter Hofstra’s 48.1 (26-for-54).

Drumgoole finished with 23 points and Jyare Davis had 13 for the Hens.

Hofstra’s dangerous trio was typically challenging for Delaware. CAA Player of the Year Tyler Thomas, the nation’s No. 3 scorer with 22.3 points per game, had 20. That was nicely complemented, as usual, by point guard Jaquan Carlos’ 18 and 6-8 Darlinstone Dubar’s 23 points and 11 rebounds.

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 face Hofstra Pride in CAA Tournament quarterfinals