By Andy Walter

First, Jameer Nelson, Jr. gave Delaware a chance at the victory.

Then he made sure the Blue Hens got it.

The senior guard took a charge with nine seconds left to give Delaware the ball before tipping in the winning shot with just 3.6 seconds remaining as the Hens pulled out a 60-59 win at Rider on Monday night.

The 6-foot-1 Nelson put back a missed shot by Jyare Davis to give Delaware (8-4) its fifth win in a row.

“The play was drawn up for Jyare,” Nelson said on a post-game radio interview. “But I told everybody in the huddle, this is the last possession of the game. Everybody has got to crash (the boards).

“I had to stand by my word. I had to crash, too.”

“Jameer’s an unbelievable athlete — an elite athlete — to be there to make a game-winning play,” said UD coach Martin Ingelsby. “That was a heck of a college basketball game — back and forth. They made shots, we responded.

“We stayed together. It was kind of a character win for us to be able to get it done.”

The non-conference contest was close throughout with eight lead changes and five ties. The Hens led for just 3:26 of the game.

Rider (4-4) led by as many as seven points while Delaware was never in front by more than two. The Hens didn’t take their first lead of the night until Davis hit a three with 15:19 left in the second half.

Nelson finished with a game-high 23 points and Davis had 15. Four other players scored for the Hens, including junior guard Johnny McCoy, who sank a pair of big three-pointers to finish with six points.

The 59-point total for the Broncos (4-5) was its second-lowest of the season.

“We just kept hanging around and hanging around,” said Ingelsby. “We made enough plays down the stretch to get it done.”

The win gives the Hens a 32-31 lead in the all-time series with Rider. The two schools are both former members of the East Coast Conference.

Delaware hosts Ohio on Wednesday at 7 p.m.

Hens’ Davis honored: Jyáre Davis picked up his second CAA Player of the Week nod on Monday.

The sophomore forward posted game highs in points (23), rebounds (9), and assists (7), while adding a career-best three blocks and one steal in Delaware’s 76-69 win at Princeton on Friday. His seven assists were also a career high.

College football

UD gets transfer commitments: With the early signing day in college football coming up on Wednesday, the Delaware football team has started picking up some verbal commitments from college transfers.

Zach Marker, a junior-college quarterback from Iowa, and Keyshawn Hunter, a defensive tackle from Old Dominion, have both said they’ll be signing with the Blue Hens.

The 6-foot-1, 195-pound Marker played three seasons at Iowa Central CC after graduating from Norwalk, Iowa High. Last fall, he completed 61.8 percent of his passes for 1,342 yards with 23 touchdown passes and six interceptions in 10 games.

Marker also ran 70 times for 411 yards and a pair of TDs.

The 6-foot-2, 275-pound Hunter played in eight games last year at ODU, making seven tackles. He was considered the No. 12 recruit in Washington D.C. after making 65 tackles with eight sacks as a seniuot at Woodson High.

Sports editor Andy Walter can be reached at walter@iniusa.org. Follow on Twitter at @DSNSports.