Blue Hens Tie Best Start in Program History With 75-56 Victory Over Maryland Eastern Shore

Friday, November 29

Newark, DE

7:00 PM

University of Delaware

8-0,0-0CAA

Maryland Eastern Shore

0-8,0-0MEAC

UMES

Delaware

Photo by: Mark Campbell

Blue Hens Tie Best Start in Program History With 75-56 Victory Over Maryland Eastern Shore

11/29/2019 9:57:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score Photo Gallery

NEWARK, Del. – Delaware pulled away late from Maryland Eastern Shore to post a 75-56 win over the Hawks Friday night at the Bob Carpenter Center to tie for the best start to a season in program history.

The Blue Hens are now 8-0 on the year, tied for the best start along with the 1998-99 squad which also won its first eight games.

Nate Darling finished with a game-high 23 points, all but four coming in the second half, while Justyn Mutts notched his third consecutive double-double with 22 points and a career-high 16 rebounds. Ryan Allen was the third Blue Hen in double figures with 19 points as he finished 9 of 10 from the foul line, while Collin Goss grabbed 10 boards.

The Blue Hens shot just 44.2 percent from the field, but helped their cause by going 22 of 25 from the charity stripe including a perfect 8 of 8 effort from Mutts. Delaware also enjoyed a 43-34 rebounding margin over Eastern Shore and held the Hawks to 33.3 percent shooting.

mbb20-mutts-umes

Delaware led by just three at 25-22 with seven minutes left in the first half, but then scored eight of the next nine points to go up double figures before settling for a 39-30 advantage at the break.

The Blue Hens extended the margin to 13 six and a half minutes into the second half, before Eastern Shore buried three consecutive triples to pull within 50-46 at the 11:52 mark.

It was still a 52-48 game with 8:18 to play, but Delaware scored the next seven points and later used a 12-0 run to go up 73-52 with three minutes on the clock.

In recognition of Delaware's 8-0 start, fans can purchase $8 tickets for Monday's home game vs. Columbia. Visit BlueHens.com or call the UD Ticket Office at 302-831-2257 on Monday to purchase.

Martin Ingelsby
"Justyn's confidence is getting higher and higher, and after sitting out last year he's really enjoying playing basketball. He's seeing success and had an efficient night, so we're trying to get him the ball. We have a lot of weapons, and settled down and took what the defense gave us later in the second half. It's wasn't a great shooting night for us, but going 22 of 25 from the foul line allowed us to keep a nice cushion. It would be a heck of a feather in our cap (to start 9-0) and it says a lot about our program, but we also have bigger goals."

Nate Darling
"We don't take any team lightly, they're a tough team that's lost some close games. We weren't as energetic early in the second half, but I started hitting some shots and we extended the lead pretty quickly. We've got a great group of guys and we're going to score the ball. We have a chance to make history on Monday, it's not our main goal but we go into every game expecting to win."