WASHINGTON, D.C. — Delaware’s men’s basketball team entered the CAA Tournament with more questions than answers.

But the sixth-needed Blue Hens were pretty impressive on Saturday night, cruising to an 80-50 over No. 14 Hampton in the tourney’s second round at the Entertainment & Sports Arena.

Delaware (19-13) opened up a gaping 35-point lead by halftime before going up by as many as 47 points in the second half.

Opening up a big early lead allowed the Hens to rest their starters for much of the second half. Delaware has to turn right around and face No. 3 Hofstra in the CAA quarterfinals on Sunday at 8:30 p.m.

Guard Gerald Drumgoole, Jr. hit 3-of-4 three-pointers and scored a team-high 17 points in only 16 minutes to lead the Hens, who also got 14 points from Cavan Reilly and 12 points and seven rebounds from Jalun Trent.

Hampton trailed just 7-5 in the opening three minutes following a Jordan Nesbitt bucket. But the Hens took control from there, going on a 21-2 run over the next 9:07 to build a 28-7 lead.

Delaware maintained the momentum through the rest of the period, closing the half with a 20-4 spurt to move on top 51-16 at the break. Drumgoole, Jr. paced UD with 14 first-half points and forward Jy’are Davis added nine as the Hens shot a sizzling 63.3 percent from the floor, including 5-of-11 from three-point range.

The Hens stayed hot coming out of the half and expanded the margin to 47 (68-21) on a Trent steal and layup with 14:20 remaining.

Delaware finished the game shooting 48.3% from the floor and 9-of-21 from three. The Hens held Hampton to just 23.4-percent field-goal shooting, which was the lowest by a team in CAA Tournament history.

Delaware faced Hofstra only once during the regular season, falling 76-71 in Hempstead, N.Y. on Jan. 6. The Hens have lost their last seven meetings with the Pride.

Free throws

Delaware is 11-7 when scoring first this season and 14-2 when leading at the half. ... The 16 first-half points surrendered are the fewest allowed by Delaware in any half this season. ...  The Hens' 51 first-half points were one shy of the season best. ... Coach Martin Ingelsby is tied for ninth all-time in CAA tournament wins with nine. He joins Brad Brownell of UNCW and Joe Mihalich of Hofstra. ... All available Blue Hens played in Saturday's game.