Women’s Basketball Downs William & Mary To Advance to CAA Semis, 61-35

Friday, March 11

Philadelphia, Pa.

5 p.m

University of Delaware

22-7,15-3CAA

William & Mary

10-20,5-13CAA

William & Mary

Delaware

Photo by: Jeff Fannon

Women’s Basketball Downs William & Mary To Advance to CAA Semis, 61-35

3/11/2022 7:54:00 PM | Women's Basketball

Box Score

PHILADELPHIA – The University of Delaware women's basketball kicked off their postseason journey Friday evening with a 61-35 quarterfinal win over No. 7 William & Mary (10-20) to advance to Saturday's semifinal-round in the 2022 CAA Championship, presented by Primis inside Daskalakis Athletic Center in Philadelphia, Pa. The win was headlined by Jasmine Dickey and Ty Battle combining for 45 points as the No. 2 Blue Hens (22-7) will await the winner of the #3 Towson/#6 Northeastern matchup. Saturday's semifinal game is scheduled for 3:30 p.m.

"Proud of our fight," said head coach Natasha Adair. "This time of year we talked about coming out and all that is on tournament games. You are going to get teams with adrenaline and I thought early on we were going too fast. The beauty of our team is that they respond - we talked to them at halftime that we are going to do it on the defensive end. Our formula is defend, rebound, run and score. Having a team that is player-led, coach-supported and having veterans, they were able to come out in the third and really respond the way that we knew that they could. I'm just proud of how hard we fought, their grit and their toughness. This time of year, you win and you advance and that was the goal. We wanted to get today and we did and then we will focus on tomorrow."

After a closely contested opening half with Delaware holding the four-point advantage (22-18), the Blue Hens outscored William & Mary 13-8 in the third to help build a nine-point cushion (35-26). Delaware started to apply pressure in the fourth to leave no doubt in anyone's mind about advancing to the next round. Dickey laid in two 54 seconds in to ignite a dominating 18-5 run for the Blue Hens to extend the lead to 24 points (55-31) with 3:53 remaining. A pair of Sydney Wagner free throws pulled the Tribe within 20 points at the 2:58 mark before Delaware scored the final six points, capped by a Makayla Pippin triple, to settle the 61-35 final.

Dickey finished with a game-high 29 points (12-of-20 FG, 5-of-5 FT) to go with 10 rebounds (six offensive) to post her 16th double-double of the season. She added a career-best six steals and a block to her stat line. Ty Battle followed with 16 points (6-of-11 FG, 4-of-9 FT) and 11 rebounds to register her 21st double-double of the season. She also added two steals and block to her stat line. Lizzie Oleary pulled down a career and game-high 15 rebounds while Paris McBride dished out a game-best five assists.

Riley Casey paced William & Mary with 15 points to conclude the season.

Delaware shot 36.4 percent (24-of-66) from the field, 17.6 percent (3–of-17) from beyond the arc and 58.8 percent (10-of-17) from the free-throw line. William & Mary connected on 25.5 percent (12-of-47) from the field, 18.8 percent (3-of-16) from three-point territory and 61.5 percent (8-of-13) from the charity stripe.

Delaware held the rebound margin advantage (54-31) while scoring 16 second-chance points off of 19 offensive rebounds. Delaware outhustled William & Mary in assists (9-8), blocks (5-2), steals (13-7), fast break points (13-6) and points in the paint (38-14) while scoring 22 points off of 21 Tribe miscues. The Tribe held the edge in bench points (6-3).

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