Back home again, Delaware Blue Hens pass by Tribe

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NEWARK — To realize how much Delaware’s players appreciate a good pass, Kevin Anderson said you just have to watch the Blue Hens’ reserves.

“If you could see our bench, whenever somebody makes a great pass, everybody stands up for it,” said the senior guard. “Like they acknowledge the pass more than the shot that was made.”

The Hens had a lot to be happy about on Thursday night as they collected a season-high 24 assists on 31 made baskets in their 84-74 CAA men’s basketball over William & Mary at the Carpenter Center.

Playing its first home game in 40 days after a pair of COVID postponements, Delaware (4-2 CAA, 13-6) never trailed in winning for the fourth time in the last five games.

Five players finished in double figures, led by Ebby Asamoah with a season-high 19. Seven players had an assist, a category led by Anderson with six.

Anderson, who also scored 18 points, has dished out a total of 32 assists in the last five games.

“It’s just exciting to see that you made a great pass and your teammate got a dunk,” he said.

“That’s the kind of team we are. We know, if we share the ball and we keep moving it around and take advantage of different mismatches, we’ll be a great team.”

Anderson will get no argument from his coach, Martin Ingelsby, who saw the Hens also get double-digit scoring from Andrew Carr (14), Jameer Nelson, Jr. (12) and Ryan Allen (12).

“It’s a fun way to play when you’re trusting and selfless on the offensive end like that,” said Ingelsby. “Honestly, I’ve just been on them about sharing the basketball. ... I keep harping on giving up a good one (shot) to get a great one.

“I think you can compare and contrast the possessions where we share the ball and pass it maybe six, seven, eight times versus the ones that are a little forced right away. That’s where we get ourselves in trouble.”

One of the only big things the Hens did wrong on Thursday was letting the Tribe (2-3 CAA, 3-15 overall) get back in the contest after Delaware built an early 16-point advantage.

A 10-0 run gave William & Mary some life and the Hens led only 42-36 at halftime.

That lead was down to just three in the second half when Anderson bounced a nice pass to Carr cutting down the lane. Carr was fouled as he dunked the ball and converted the three-point play for a 49-43 Delaware lead.

The Hens eventually pushed their advantage back to 16. They never were up by fewer than nine points in the final 14 minutes.

More than anything, Delaware was just happy to be playing in the Carpenter Center again. Thursday’s game starts a stretch of seven home dates in the next nine games.

The Hens were the only CAA squad that hadn’t played at least two home league games yet.

“It feels good to be home,” said Asamoah. “That’s the first thing I said when I came back, I’m glad to be home. Hopefully we can keep a little streak going and see what we can do.”

Delaware hosts Elon on Saturday at 1 p.m. and then Towson on Monday at 7 p.m. Ingelsby hopes starting their conference schedule with five straight road games — and winning three of them — has now put the Hens in a position to get some momentum going.

Thursday’s contest was only the sixth home game of the season for Delaware.

“We’ve been in a lot of situations that you can coach and teach off of,” said Ingelsby. “I think our guys are starting to believe that, hey man, we’ve got a chance to do something special things this year.”

Free throws

Asamoah, who was averaging only 5.5 ppg four games ago, has now netted 47 points in the last three contests. He’s 13-of-24 from three-point range in that span. ... Allen became only the fourth player in program history to play 4,000 minutes in his career. He joins Brian Pearl, Devon Saddler and Kyle Anderson in that category... William & Mary had won 10 of the last 12 meetings in the series although Delaware now leads the all-time series 27-18. ... Carr has scored in double figures in four straight games.

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