As the Blue Hens finished their regular season with three defeats, contemplating a Colonial Athletic Association Basketball Tournament title seemed like madness.
Welcome to March.
Delaware is going back to the NCAA Tournament.
The Blue Hens came out on top in a CAA final thriller with UNC-Wilmington Tuesday night that couldn’t have been much closer, making the plays that matter in the final minute for a 59-55 win at the Entertainment & Sports Arena.
Students, cheerleaders, dance team members and other fans swarmed the Hens on the floor as the buzzer sounded, Delaware’s delirium well earned after three wins in three days in the CAA tourney. The Hens’ late-season struggles served to stir their postseason determination.
BOX SCORE: Delaware 59, UNCW 55
Delaware (22-12) became the first No. 5 seed to be champion in the tournament’s 39-year history. The Blue Hens’ late losses made them appear to be a long shot for the CAA title.
Defense was at the root of the Blue Hens’ success, which began with wins over No. 4 Drexel 66-56 Sunday and No. 1 Towson 69-56 Monday. It’s the first time the CAA champion limited each of its victims to less than 60 points since VCU in 2009.
“Getting that one Sunday, these guys were ready to roll,” sixth-year coach Martin Ingelsby said. “They were ready to compete, they were ready to lay it on the line for each other and we had a chip on our shoulder.
“We were not happy with how we finished the season,” he added of losses to Charleston, UNCW and Towson, “but boy does this make this experience even more enjoyable for us, to be able to finish it and cut down nets and be champs.”
It was Delaware’s second CAA title in its 21 years in the league, with the Hens having downed William & Mary for the 2014 championship.
The crowd of 1,829 include several busloads of UD students.
CAA Rookie of the Year Jyare Davis, the red-shirt freshman out of Sanford School, was named tournament MVP. He led the Hens with 18 points.
“A lot of people counted us out . . . Look now,” Davis said, as fans chanted “MVP! MVP!”
Red-shirt freshman Andrew Carr supplied 17 points and 12 rebounds, with his six offensive rebounds tying for third highest ever in the title game. Jameer Nelson Jr. and Ryan Allen each scored 10 points.
Carr and senior guard Kevin Anderson joined Davis on the All-Tournament team.
“Coming in here five years ago and where we were at and where we’re at now,” Anderson said. “I don’t even know what to say, I’m just so happy right now.”
Delaware nailed down its sixth NCAA berth, following those secured by the North Atlantic Conference champions of 1992 and 1993 coached by Steve Steinwedel, Mike Brey’s America East winners of 1998 and 1999 and Monte Ross’s 2014 Colonial kings. Ingelsby played for and was then an assistant under Brey after his July, 2000, move to Notre Dame, where he is still coach.
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The NCAA Tournament bracket will be revealed Sunday beginning at 6 p.m. on CBS-TV. The tournament begins with First Four games in Dayton March 15 and 16 that will whittle the field from 68 to 64.
First- and second-round games then follow March 17-19 in Buffalo, Indianapolis, Fort Worth and Portland, Oregon, and March 18-20 in Pittsburgh, Milwaukee, Greenville, South Carolina, and San Diego.
The CAA champ could be placed at any of those sites. With an NCAA Evaluation Tool (NET) ranking of 136 nationally before Tuesday’s game, Delaware will likely be a No. 14 or 15 seed.
“It’s like Christmas morning for a student-athlete to be able to be there and watch Selection Sunday and see your name pop up and see where we’re going,” Ingelsby said.
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No. 2-seeded UNCW (23-9) had shared the regular-season CAA title with Towson. The Seahawks were ninth in the CAA preseason media/coaches poll, which was topped by Delaware. They won both regular-season games over the Hens – 70-68 in the league opener Dec. 29 and 69-62 in Newark to close their regular season Feb. 26.
Delaware trailed 34-30 after a first half in which it held just one brief lead, 19-17, when Allen scooped in a layup with 9:37 to go. The Blue Hens were buoyed early by their ability to get rebounds, having a 22-16 advantage in that category over the first 20 minutes.
Neither team was particularly consistent offensively as the second half got under way, and Delaware stayed close but struggled to string together successful possessions. Delaware finally grabbed its first lead of the second half when Anderson put back his own miss to make it 44-43 with 8:46 left.
The score stayed close, and another Allen drive put the Hens ahead 53-50 with 4:15 on the clock. But Jaylen Sims drained three foul shots for the Seahawks and followed with a short jumper as they went up 55-53. After a Davis fee throw cut the lead to one, he arced in a short shot with 1:01 left to inch the Hens back ahead 56-55.
After a UNCW miss, Carr hit the first of two free throws with 14 seconds left, but Ebby Asamoah rebounded the second-shot miss and was fouled. He drained his two shots to make it 59-55 as the UD crowd sensed the impending win. UNCW then missed a shot, Delaware rebounded and the buzzer soon ignited the giddy celebration.
“I willed that to happen, man,” Asamoah said of his clutch rebound. “I was not gonna let that rebound go away for anything. We needed it so bad. I iced the game and we were done. We’re champions, that’s it. We’re champions.”
Sims scored 18 for UNCW, which shot 37 percent from the field to the Hens’ 39 percent and was 4-for-15 on threes to Delaware’s 2-for-13. But Delaware’s 42-32 rebound edge featured 15 grabs from the offensive glass. The Hens weren’t hurt by a late 5-for-11 free-throw stretch.
The only previous CAA champ to knock off three higher seeds en route to the title was East Carolina in 1993.
“We earned the title,” Ingelsby said. ” . . . It makes it even more enjoyable knowing you went through the best of the best in your conference to get it done.”
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