Darling Leads Second Half Comeback as Blue Hens Defeat Northeastern, 76-74

Saturday, January 25

Boston, MA

12:00 PM

University of Delaware

15-7, 5-4CAA

Northeastern

11-10, 5-4CAA

Delaware

Northeastern

Darling Leads Second Half Comeback as Blue Hens Defeat Northeastern, 76-74

1/25/2020 3:04:00 PM | Men's Basketball

Box Score

BOSTON – Nate Darling scored 34 points and Delaware rallied from a 16-point deficit in the final 12 minutes as the Blue Hens swept their weekend road swing with an impressive 76-74 victory over Northeastern Saturday afternoon at Matthews Arena.

Delaware, which won its third straight game, trailed 58-42 with 11:51 remaining and was still down 15 with 9:21 to play, but the Blue Hens reeled off 13 straight points to pull within 63-61 on a Jacob Cushing three-pointer at the 7:13 mark.

UD finally drew even on two Kevin Anderson free throws with 3:55 to go, and took its first lead of the half at 74-73 when Darling hit a foul shot at the 1:27 mark.

Delaware still led by a point in the final seconds, when the Huskies' Tyson Walker lost the ball and was tied up by Cushing, giving Delaware possession with four seconds left. After Darling hit two clutch free throws, the Blue Hens intentionally fouled with 1.3 seconds on the clock.

Walker made the first, and after he intentionally missed the second, Dylan Painter grabbed the rebound to seal the victory.

Darling, who scored 28 points in the second half, went 11 of 19 from the field and 9 of 11 from the foul line on the afternoon. Anderson finished with 12 points, seven rebounds and six assists, while Ryan Allen added 10 points while shutting down NU's leading scorer Jordan Roland late in the game.

Roland led the Huskies with 27 points, but did not score in the final nine minutes.

Delaware got off to a strong start, as a Painter dunk and Darling layup gave the Blue Hens a 21-18 lead with nine minutes left in the half. However Northeastern answered with a 21-4 run, going in front 39-27 before taking a 42-29 advantage into the break.

Martin Ingelsby
"This is a huge road win for our program. We got an unbelievable defensive effort from Ryan Allen on Jordan Roland, he wanted the challenge and really stepped up on that end of the court. I can't say enough about Nate Darling, I've been waiting for a day like this from him and he really carried us. We went with a smaller lineup in the second half, while allowed us to spread the floor and open up driving lanes."

Nate Darling
"This is a gutsy win, we really got it rolling in the second half and it shows the talent that we have. We just beat two of the better teams in our conference on the road, which gives us a huge boost of confidence moving forward."