Blue Hens Winning Streak Moves To Five After 84-78 Win Vs Towson

Photo: Mark Campbell

The University of Delaware men’s basketball team has now won five straight games as they defeated the Towson University Tigers 84-78 on Thursday at the Bob Carpenter Center.

The leading scorer of the game for the Blue Hens was redshirt junior guard Nate Darling who had 34 points. This is the third time this season, Darling has scored 30-plus points in a game.

Three other Blue Hen players scored in double digits which were junior guard Ryan Allen (18), junior guard Kevin Anderson (10) and redshirt junior forward Dylan Painter (11).

Delaware had the advantage in multiple categories in this game which included fast-break points (20-10), blocks (3-1) and assists (14-11).

The Blue Hens also bested Towson in shooting percentage by shooting 47.8% (22-46) and the Tigers shot 47.4% (27-57). Delaware also had the advantage at the three-point line by shooting 48.1 (13-27) and Towson shot 46.2 % (12-26).

Delaware took advantage of the opportunity to get free points as the team shot  84.4% (27-32) at the free-throw line. The Tigers shot 80.0 (12-15) at the free-throw line in the game.

Related: Hens Do It Again: Last-Second Layup By Anderson Gets 73-71 Win Over Hofstra

Hens Lead By 10 At The Half

The leading scorer for Delaware in the first half was Ryan Allen who had 16 points. The first half was Delaware’s best shooting percentage of the game, as the team shot 54.17 % (13-24). The Blue Hens also shot 87.50 % (7-8) at the free-throw line in the first half.

Towson shot 40.74 % (11-27) in the first half and they also shot 75.00 % (6-8) at the free-throw line.

The game started with the Hens jumping out to a quick 8-2 lead which was led by Allen who scored five of the eight points.

At the 15:59 minute mark, Delaware would go on another run which was a 16-7 run and it would push the team’s lead to 26-15 with 11:25 left in the half. Nate Darling was the leading man on this run as he scored nine of the 16 points.

In the late minutes of the first half, Delaware would hit six free throws to keep their lead in double digits as the score was 42-32 going into halftime.

Tigers Make It Close Late But Delaware Hangs On To Win

The leading scorer for Delaware in the second half was Nate Darling who had 22 points. As a team, the Hens shot 40.91 % (9-22) in the second half and they also shot 83.33 % (20-24) from the free-throw line.

Towson shot 53.33 % (16-33) in the second half and they also shot 85.71 % (6-7) at the free-throw line.

Delaware would keep a double-digit lead for most of the second half but around the eight-minute mark, the Tigers would claw back into the game to get the Hens lead in the single digits. Towson would go on a 15-7 run during that time which decreased the Hens lead to three points (67-64) with 3:52 left in the game.

Towson pulling the deficit within three, woke Delaware up as the team would outscore the Tigers 17-14 for the rest of the game to seal an 84-78 win. Free throw shooting was crucial during this stretch as the team hit 14 foul shots.

Delaware stays at home to take on James Madison on February 8th at 2 PM ET.

Stats:

FG%: UD47.8 %& TU47.4 %
3P%: UD48.1 %%& TU46.2 %
FT%: UD84.4 %&TU80.0 %
Rebs: UD29&TU30
Ast: UD14&TU11
Stl: UD3&TU5
TO: UD 11&TU11
Blks: UD 3 &TU1