Balanced win for UD's men's hoops at Army
By Kevin Tresolini
WEST POINT, N.Y. –
Up eight at halftime and knowing its men's basketball opponent was not inclined to give in, Delaware took command in timely fashion Tuesday night.
The Blue Hens scored on their first eight possessions of the second half, easing concern and paving the way to an 89-74 nonconference victory over Army at Christl Arena on the U.S. Military Academy campus.
Delaware led 38-30 at halftime. But the Black Knights, despite missing all 12 of their 3-point tries, had resisted several UD opportunities to pull away.
An early second-half run, which featured postmen Carl Baptiste and Marvin King-Davis scoring from both the paint and the perimeter, allowed Delaware to stretch its lead to 63-40 with 12:24 left.
"They just fought back the whole time," King-Davis said. "We had to start strong, because we knew they wouldn't let up."
Delaware, which won its first game of the season two days before at Hampton, evened its record at 2-2.
A balanced stat sheet showed five double-figure scorers: Jarvis Threatt (21 points); Davon Usher (16); Kyle Anderson (16); Baptiste (14); King-Davis (13).
While outrebounding Army 44-35, the Blue Hens shared that task, too. King-Davis snared nine rebounds, Baptiste and Usher grabbed eight, Anderson seven and Threatt six. Threatt also had eight assists and four steals.
"That's what we want this year," Baptiste said. "Share the ball. Get everybody involved. Crash the glass. That's the key to our team."
The Hens were playing their second of seven games without All-CAA senior guard Devon Saddler, suspended for an unspecified violation of university rules.
"We try to start every half, every game, with the simple mindset of 'Let's just win the first four minutes,'" said coach Monte Ross, whose Hens outscored Army 16-7 over the initial 4:32 of the second half. "We realized no lead is safe against a team that shoots as many threes and is capable of making as many threes as Army is."
Army, third in the preseason Patriot League poll behind Boston University and Lafayette, fell to 1-3.
It was Delaware's first meeting with Army since Dec. 8, 1987, which was also the Hens' only previous win in a 15-game history dating to 1922. Army will visit Delaware next season. Next up for Delaware is Friday night's visit to Villanova, which has never lost to the Hens in 11 meetings.
Army entered the game with nearly two-thirds of its shots coming from 3-point range, though its aim was just 29.8 percent. The Black Knights then missed their first 15. When Scott Mammel broke the drought with 10:03 left, Delaware's lead was still 69-48, and grew to as many as 26 points. Army finished 2-for-21 beyond the arc.
An early 12-2 run had allowed Delaware to take charge, and Devonne Pinkard's 3-pointer gave the Hens their first double-digit lead at 23-13. Threatt's dunk off Pinkard's steal gave Delaware its widest margin, 29-17. But Army wouldn't let the Hens pull away down the stretch before halftime.
"That really was our whole game plan," Baptiste said. "Take the three away. Make them beat us with twos, and we just stuck to our fundamentals about defense, communicating and we were able to take the lead out a little bit more [in the second half] and get comfortable."
Contact Kevin Tresolini at ktresolini@delawareonline.com.