ELON, N.C. — Midway through the third quarter, Delaware was hardly playing like the CAA Tournament’s top seed.

In a game that had been tight all the way through, the Blue Hens found themselves trailing No. 9 UNC-Wilmington by six.

But Delaware took a three-point lead into the fourth quarter and then cranked it up there, running away to a 70-52 victory over the Seahawks in the CAA quarterfinals on Thursday at the Schar Center.

The Hens (20-3) move on to today’s semifinals where they face No. 5 Hofstra at 2:30 p.m.

Delaware out-scored UNCW (7-14) by a 21-6 margin in the fourth quarter as it earned the program’s first CAA tourney win since 2018. Last year’s tournament was canceled by the pandemic.

“In the fourth quarter, we just challenged them,” said UD coach Natasha Adair. “We said it’s winning time and we need winning plays. ... We were just locked in. To go 21-6 in the fourth, that lets me know that we were just really focused.”

“We had a timeout and she (Adair) was just like, ‘Everybody calm down,’” said junior guard Jewel Smalls. “‘Just be us. Play Delaware basketball.’ From there we just calmed down and we took off.”

Delaware, which leads the nation in offensive rebounds, had a 48-29 advantage on the glass. The Hens grabbed 24 offensive rebounds which resulted in 28 extra field-goal attempts.

Smalls came off the bench to drain five three-pointers and score 19 points, while CAA Player of the Year Jasmine Dickey recorded her eighth double-double with 19 points and 13 rebounds. Hens’ forward Ty Battle added 10 points and 13 boards for her league-leading 17th double-double.

Freshman guard Tyi Skinner, with 12 points, gave the Hens a fourth double-digit scorer.

Delaware opened the fourth quarter on a 13-1 run to take control. The Hens held UNCW to just two field goals over the final 10 minutes.

After trailing by one at halftime, the Seahawks started fast in the third quarter and took their largest lead of the game,  40-34, with 5:39 to go in the stanza. But Delaware battled back and closed the quarter on an 8-1 run to regain a three-point lead.

Delaware outscored the Seahawks in points off turnovers 17-5, second chance points 14-5, and bench points 36-12.

College volleyball

Delaware State 3, Howard 0: The Hornets improved to 5-2 with the 25-7, 25-23, 25-16 MEAC win on Thursday night.

Mayah Ngundam had nine kills with Valeria Otero adding eight for DelState. Jelena Dukic collected 18 assists.

College lacrosse

UD’s kitchen named to watch list: Delaware lacrosse standout Charlie Kitchen has earned a spot on the Tewaaraton Award Watch List for the second-straight year.

The list names the top-50 candidates for the nation’s top male and female lacrosse student-athletes.

Kitchen, who is a two-time CAA Preseason Offensive Player of the Year and the 2019 CAA Co-Offensive Player of the year, has 16 points on six goals and 10 assists this year. Kitchen is one of just two players in program history to rank in the top-10 in goals, assists and points.

Unified basketball

Dover to host IR in finals: Dover High will host Indian River in the DIAA Unified Basketball state championship game on Saturday at 1 p.m.

The Senators (5-0-1) beat Middletown, 29-23, and then Seaford, 34-20, to advance to the finals. The Indians (4-2) beat McKean, 34-31, and Caesar Rodney, 33-30, in their two state tournament games.

Dover downed IR, 28-18, during the regular season.