By Andy Walter

NEWARK — Christian Ray has watched Jameer Nelson, Jr. play basketball forever.

Not only are the two teammates at Delaware, but they played together in high school, too.

So when Ray says watching Nelson, Jr. on Saturday was pretty special, he knows what he’s talking about.

Nelson, Jr. put up a career-high 39 points — the most for a Blue Hen player in almost a decade — as short-handed Delaware stunned third-place UNC-Wilmington, 75-66, in a CAA men’s basketball game at the Carpenter Center.

“Oh my gosh, it was incredible,” said Ray. “It was to the point where we didn’t help out, we just wanted to watch him work.

“To be honest, he’s been amazing me for seven years now. I know him well enough that, once he made the first one, I was like, ‘This might be his night.’ We actually told me him before the game, ‘You might go for 40 tonight.’”

Nelson, Jr. actually would have reached 40 if he hadn’t missed a pair of free throws with 30 seconds left. But the junior guard didn’t miss many other shots.

He ended hitting 13-of-21 shots from the floor — including 5-of-8 from three-point range — and going 8-of-10 from the foul line. Nelson, Jr. started the contest by sinking seven of his first eight shots, including all four three-point attempts.

His 39-point total was the most for a Delaware player since 2014 when Davon Usher netted 42 in a comeback win over Charleston. His previous career high was 30 points.

“Jameer was just on a tear,” said UD coach Martin Ingelsby. “He just put our team on his back.

“Some nights I joke with him, I say ‘You’ve got to go get 40.’ I didn’t talk to him a whole lot. He was just in one of those zones.”

“This one right here was definitely fun,” Nelson, Jr. said with a smile. “There was nothing they could do about it. It was definitely fun to just keep scoring and keep scoring.”

It was more than just a big night from Nelson, Jr. that lifted the Hens (6-10 CAA, 14-15 overall) past the Seahawks (11-5 CAA, 21-8 overall). Delaware played without Jyare Davis and Ebby Asamoah, both who were injured early in Saturday’s contest along with starter L.J. Owens (wrist), who has missed the last few weeks.

Instead, Delaware got some crucial contributions from reserve players like Johnny McCoy (9 points) and Aleks Novakovich (6 points), who was one of only three seniors honored before their last home game.

“We always talk in the locker room like, man, one of them nights is going to come,” said Nelson, Jr. “Because we’ve never had a night like that this year. We knew it was going to come at some point. I would count it definitely as ‘One of those nights.’”

Considering UNCW had won six of its last seven games, while the Hens had lost nine of 13, there was no reason to think Delaware was ready to pull the upset on Saturday. But the Hens never trailed again after going up 13-10 on a Gianmarco Arletti three-pointer with 12:06 left in the first half.

Delaware was up 42-29 at halftime before its advantage balooned to as many as 20 points in the second half.

After giving up 95 points in a loss at Towson on Thursday, the Hens held the Seahawks to 29 fewer points.

Arletti and Nelson, Jr. had three steals apiece as UNCW committed 16 turnovers and made only 26-of-56 shots from the floor.

“We played defense with five people,” said Nelson, Jr. “That’s what we did today to win.”

The Seahawks did make several runs, finally getting Delaware’s lead down to just 72-66 with 45.9 seconds remaining. But Nelson, Jr. made two foul shots and Ray added another with 16.9 seconds left as the Hens finally put away the victory.

The game was a rematch of last year’s CAA Tournament championship game. While the Hens are still a long way from looking like a contender for this year’s title, Saturday’s win showed they still have some life in them.

“I’m just trying to keep our group together and trying to be as loose as possible,” said Ingelsby.

“I think it shows the character of our team — the resiliency,” he said about Saturday’s win. “We had guys who were just ready to step up at an important time. We got punched in the mouth on Thursday night and we stayed together, came back and were ready to work. Everybody that was available contributed.”

Free throws

Davis played the first three minutes of Saturday’s game before sitting out the rest due to knee soreness. ... Asamoah sprained his ankle on a drive just four minutes into the contest and had to be helped off the floor. Ingelsby said it was the same ankle Asamoah had sprained earlier in the season. ... The only senior players honored before the game were Novakovich, Owens and walk-on Fred Rullo, III. ... Delaware plays its final two regular-season games on the road, starting with a trip to new CAA member North Carolina A&T on Thursday.

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