Former Wesley head basketball coach Jerry Kobasa is honored before Sunday afternoon’s season opener against Virginia Wesleyan. As coach from 2005 to 2015, Kobasa won 163 games against 109 loses for a .599 winning percentage. The 163 wins are the most in the college’s Division III history. He also guided the Wolverines to their first-ever top 25 ranking twice during the 2012-2013 season. (Special to the Delaware State News/Gary Emeigh)[/caption]

The Wesley College men’s basketball team opened its season with an exclamation point, earning a 92-91 victory over No. 2 Virginia Wesley on Sunday afternoon.

Trailing by a point with 11 seconds left, the Wolverines turned to senior leader Anthony Bowers. The guard drove the length of the floor and floated up a contested layup.

The shot went off the back of the rim but was snatched by Rasahn Brinkley who put in the rebound to give the Wolverines a lead with 1.9 seconds to go. Brinkley was fouled on the play, and deliberately missed the ensuing foul shot, forcing the Marlins to heave a desperation full-court shot that missed, giving Wesley the win.

The Wolverines were making their debut under new gead coach Dean Burrows.

J.W. Lawson led all scorers with 33 points and grabbe 11 rebounds for a double-double, carrying the Wesley offense with 25 of its 44 points first-half points.

Bowers scored 14, with all of them coming in the second half as he led the Wolverines down the stretch. Brinkley tallied 17 points and 10 boards to earn a double-double in his first game as a Wolverine.

Chris Scott added nine point on 3-of-5 shooting from behind the arc.

Before the game, the Wolverines honored former coach Jerry Kobasa, who stepped down after last season. In 10 seasons Kobasa led Wesley to four NCAA Division III Tournament appearances, finishing with a record of 163-109.

College soccer

MEN, Hofstra 2, Delaware 0: The Blue Hens could not overcome a dominating first-half performance and fell to the Pride in the Colonial Athletic Association championship game.

The No. 3 seed Hens (10-7-4) fell short in the CAA championship game for the second straight year and missed out on their first CAA Tournament title since 2011. The Hens had an eight-game unbeaten streak snapped (6-0-2) and lost for the first time since a 1-0 setback at Hofstra back on Oct. 10.

Top seed Hofstra (13-7) used first half goals by Nino Alfonso and tournament Most Outstanding Performer Joseph Holland to jump out to a 2-0 lead and never looked back. The Pride captured their first CAA title since 2006 and will now head to the NCAA Tournament.

“I think we were emotionally and physically drained from Friday night and just didn’t have a lot of gas in the tank,” said Delaware coach Ian Hennessy. “The early goals killed us even though we pressed hard in the second half. We are very proud of the commitment from our players. Congratulations to Hofstra on a well-deserved win.

“If you would have told me before the season that we would be standing here, I would have said that was a bonus, especially since we had five players who had never played college soccer before,” Hennessy continued. “This is really a staggering achievement for this group and we are very proud of them.”

College volleyball

UNC-Wilmington 3, Delaware 0: The Blue Hens saw their season come to an end on Sunday afternoon after falling to the Seahawks by scores of 25-18, 25-21, 25-21 at the Carpenter Center.

Delaware, which dropped its fifth consecutive match, failed to earn a berth in the CAA Tournament and ends its season with a 12-17 overall record and a 4-12 league mark. The Seahawks improved to 21-7 overall and 12-4 in the CAA as they finished in a tie for first place in the conference standings.

Blue Hen junior Autumn Jenkins led Delaware with 14 kills on the afternoon, while Katie Hillman and Alexa Swann added five apiece. Ariel Shonk paced Delaware with 19 digs and Taylor Hollingsworth contributed 12, while Swann posted a team-high four blocks.

Towson 3, Delaware State 1: The Hornets (3-25) dropped their season finale by scores of 25-19, 25-17, 18-25, 25-19.

Senior Jasmine Jackson, playing in her final match, led Delaware State with 12 kills to close out her career with 992, third-best in team history. She also had five digs to finish her career with 816,

DSU’s Alliyah McBean led all players with 14 digs.

High school athletics

Schedules set for field hockey, soccer: The schedules have been set for Wednesday night’s semifinals in both the DIAA field hockey and boys’ soccer state tournaments.

The field hockey semis will be played as a doubleheader at the University of Delaware’s Rullo Stadium. Top-seeded Cape Henlopen will take on No. 5 Tower Hill at 6 p.m. with third-seeded Delmar facing No. 2 Wilmington Christian at approximately 8 p.m.

The Division I boys’ soccer semifinals will be played at Smyrna. At 6 p.m., No. 1 Appoquinimink will play fourth-seeded Wilmington Charter before No. 2 Salesianum faces third-seeded Cape Henlopen at 8 p.m.

The Division II boys’ soccer semis will be held at Appoquinimink. Fifth-seeded Indian River and No. 8 Archmere square off at 6 p.m. with second-seeded Caravel and No. 3 Tower Hill playing at 8 p.m.

College basketball

WOMEN, West Virginia 77, Delaware State 34: The Hornets lost their season opener on Saturday in the debut of new head coach Barbara Burgess.

The Hornets dropped to 13-26 all-time in season openers and are 1-4 all-time against the Mountaineers.

West Virginia tallied the game’s first 12 points, led by as many as 21 in the first half and took a 35-15 lead into halftime.

DSU was led by Bri Justice (3-of-7) and guard N’Kayah Kersey (2-of-8) with eight points each. Saturday’s loss was DSU’s 10th straight dating back to last season.