University of Delaware Athletics
Delaware Wins Ninth Straight as Trio of Delle Donne, Parker, Carra Leads Hens to 67-39 Victory vs. UNCW
1/24/2013 7:42:00 PM | Women's Basketball
NEWARK, Del. – The senior trio of Elena Delle Donne, Danielle Parker, and Lauren Carra (at right) combined for 49 points and 21 rebounds as the University of Delaware women's basketball squad cruised to its ninth straight victory with a 67-39 Colonial Athletic Association triumph over UNCW Thursday night at the Bob Carpenter Center.
Delle Donne, a 6-5 senior All-American, finished the night with a game-high 26 points on 11 of 15 shooting from the field and added eight rebounds, Parker recorded 10 points and eight rebounds, and Carra contributed 13 points and five rebounds to highlight the balanced effort before a crowd of 4,151.
Delaware (14-3, 5-0 CAA), which earned Top 25 votes in both the Associated Press media and USA Today coaches polls this week, remained atop of the CAA standings as the Hens won their 23rd straight conference regular season game since the 2010-11 season. The Hens have now defeated the Seahawks five straight times.
UNCW (2-14, 1-4 CAA), which lost its third straight game, was led by Karneshia Garrett with 14 points and five rebounds. Kelva Atkins came off the bench to add 11 points while Dana Brown pulled down a team-high seven rebounds.
“I was okay with tonight's effort,” said Delaware head coach Tina Martin, whose team played it 200th CAA regular season game all-time and improved to 139-61 (69.5 percent). “I was more worried about us missing shots. I tried to give some people an opportunity to step in and get more minutes, points, and shots, and by the way they played and produced we will continue to try to do that when the game situation presents itself like tonight.”
The Blue Hens shot just 40 percent from the field (28 of 71) but knocked down six three-pointers, committed just eight turnovers, and outrebounded the Seahawks by a 46-30 margin.
Delaware's smothering defense, which entered the game ranked second in NCAA Division I in field goal defense (21.6 percent), eighth in three-point field goal defense (24.7 percent), and eighth in scoring defense (49.1 points per game), forced UNCW into 36 percent shooting (15 of 42) and forced 16 Seahawks turnovers. UNCW did not help itself at the foul line where it converted just 3 of 14 tries.
The 39 points allowed by the Blue Hens was the team's third best effort of the season on the defensive side of the ball as UD earlier this season defeated George Mason 62-27 and Sam Houston State 63-31.
“I thought it was a good team win,” said Delle Donne (at left), a consensus All-American in 2012 who is averaging 24.4 points per game this seasons. “A lot of shots weren't dropping, which means they will hopefully finally drop at Drexel (Sunday). I think we had great effort the entire game tonight and we played solid Delaware basketball.”
For the second straight game, the Hens came out slow but recovered and won going away. Delaware led just 11-9 seven minutes into the game but a three-pointer by Kayla Miller started a 12-2 run over a span of just under seven minutes that pushed the lead to 23-11.
Delaware eventually took a 34-18 lead into intermission and pushed the lead to 26 in the opening minutes of the second half by opening the stanza on an 11-1 that was once again highlighted by a Miller triple. The Seahawks never got closer than 21 points the rest of the night
“You win a game by whatever and now you have to prepare to have a barnburner,” said Martin, whose team will head to long-time rival Drexel Sunday. “It's going to be hot in that (Drexel) gym. We'll probably bring a ton of fans and it's going to be a great atmosphere. It always is when we go up there.”
