By Andy Walter

NEWARK — For much of the night there wasn’t much seperating Delaware and Delaware State.

But Jameer Nelson, Jr. was determined to do something about that.

The senior guard netted 15 of the Blue Hens’ final 30 points as Delaware finally put away a 77-69 over the Hornets in men’s basketball at the Carpenter Center on Wednesday night.

Nelson finished with a game-high 27 points to earn MVP honors in the Route One Rivalry contest while L.J. Owens added 21 for Delaware (5-4). The Hens now the lead the all-time series 17-5 with three straight wins.

Nelson knew he needed to step up down the stretch.

“I felt like the last couple games I haven’t been a great leader,” said Nelson. “I felt like Coach told me at halftime to slow the team down and make sure we get good shots. We just had good possessions.”

“I got on him pretty hard at halftime,” said coach Martin Ingelsby, who notched his 100th career win. “I just didn’t think he was as into the game as he needed to be in quarterbacking our group, controlling our team.

“He’s got to be a vocal leader out there for us. I think that’s something that’s he’s growing into. He was fabulous down the stretch. ... We needed him big time tonight.”

Delaware took the lead for good at 50-49 on a Nelson three-pointer with 11:43 remaining. That was followed quickly by a pair of threes from Owens as the Hens stretched their advantage to 58-51.

The Hornets (1-8) never got closer than four points after that.

A game after Jyare Davis tallied a career-high 25 points in a win over Davidson, the Hornets double-teamed the big man, limiting him to 11. It was interesting that Davis was playing against DSU coach Stan Waterman, who was his high school coach at Sanford.

Owens picked up the slack, though.

The 6-foot-3 guard is a transfer who played at both UMBC and William & Mary. This was actually the third time Ingelsby had tried to get him to be a Blue Hen.

“When they try to double-team the post, we’ve got a lot of offensive weapsons,” said Owens, who was 5-of-7 from three-point range. “We’re ready to shoot, knock our shots down. We can play off him.”

Davis finished with six assists.

It was a game of runs from the start. Delaware tallied the night’s first six points only to have DSU answer by scoring the next nine. The Hornets held that advantage the rest of the half, taking a 33-30 lead into intermission on Corey Perkins’ drive just before the break.

Perkins — another Sanford grad — finished with a team-high 18 points for DelState. Brandon Stone (12), Martaz Robinson (11) and Cameron Stitt (11) also scored in double figures.

“We had a nice game plan in the first half and we executed our game plan pretty well,” said Waterman. “I think the difference was, down the stretch, they executed much better. They made some adjustments and got the shots that they wanted and we didn’t execute as well.

“But we’re learning, we’re getting better. We’re growing. It’s not showing in terms of wins right now but we had a really, really difficult and challenging schedule — by design. The goal is to try to prepare for the MEAC.”

Free throws

Notre Dame coach Mike Brey congratulated Ingelsby on his 100th win via a short video clip played after the game. Brey finished with 99 wins at Delaware. ... Christian Ray had a double-double with 11 points anad 10 rebounds. ... Nelson scored the 1,000th point of his career on Wednesday. He started his career at George Washington. ... The Hens next host Sienna on Sunday at 2 p.m. ... The Hornets host Georgian Court on Saturday at 3:30 p.m.

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