By Andy Walter

NEWARK — When Ryan Allen let the shot fly, there were a lot of people in the Carpenter Center who thought it was going to fall.

Allen was one of them.

Delaware’s all-time leader in three-pointers had just hit his last couple from beyond the arc.

“I mean, it looked good,” said Allen. “It was one of those nights when I thought it was going to go in.”

But while the shot was on line, it was just a little too deep, and bounced off the rim at the final buzzer to seal the Blue Hens’ fate in a free-wheeling 99-96 loss to Charleston in CAA men’s basketball on Thursday night.

Delaware made a frantic comeback after trailing by 12 with just over a minute left. A three-pointer from Kevin Anderson finished a run of three straight threes and got the Hens within 93-92 with 19.2 seconds still remaining.

Delaware (10-6 CAA, 19-10 overall) got within one point two more times. The Cougars (8-8 CAA, 16-12 overall), though, got a pair of free throws from Reyne Smith (22 points) with 3.2 seconds left to get their lead back to 99-96.

Anderson inbounded the ball to Allen, who sprinted up court to get off his last-second shot.

“For me to miss like that kind of hurts,” said Allen, who finished with a game-high 28 points. “It was just half an inch too far.

“Other than that, though, we’ve just got to play better defense. Giving up 99 points, you’re not going to win a lot of games like that. We battled and I appreciate that from my teammates.”

“What people don’t know is we’ve done that a lot in practice,” said Jameer Nelson, Jr. who scored 23 points. “Where we’re getting them to turn the ball over, turn the ball over and speeding them up. I’ve seen it before, it just depended if we were going to decide to do it or not.

“He’s made a thousand of them,” he said about Allen’s last shot. “He brought us back there to get us in position to win. It was only right that he could take the last shot.”

Delaware, which had a three-game winning streak snapped, never led in the contest. The Hens trailed by 13 after the first 10 minutes and were down 49-32 at halftime.

The Cougars’ advantage grew to as much as 20 early in the second half.

Midway through the second half, Delaware briefly closed within 60-54 on a three-point play from Nelson. But Smith buried back-to-back threes and Charleston’s lead quickly ballooned back to 14.

The Cougars’ freshman guard from Australia was a thorn in the Hens’ side, sinking 6-of-10 threes and scoring 10 points over his average.

Charleston ended up shooting 57.6 percent (34-of-59).

Delaware beat the Cougars, 67-66, on New Year’s Eve as the two teams combined to score 62 more points in the rematch. Charleston did commit 24 turnovers as Nelson tied a school record with eight steals.

But the Hens knew it might be difficult to keep pace with the Cougars.

“The physicality, the toughness — whatever it is — we did not have that tonight,” said Delaware coach Martin Ingelsby. “We battled to give ourselves a chance.”

Free throws

Delaware plays its last home game on Saturday when it hosts UNC-Wilmington on Saturday at 4 p.m. ... Freshman Jyare Davis added 20 points off the bench while Andrew Carr had 10 to give the Hens four players in double figures. ... Charleston also had four players in double digits. ... Anderson’s big three-pointer was his only basket of the night.

Follow Andy Walter on Twitter at @DSNSports.