By Tim Mastro

DOVER — It will rarely be this easy, but Stan Waterman’s collegiate coaching career is off to a good start.

Four Delaware State University players scored in double figures as the Hornets defeated Cairn University 80-41 in Waterman’s debut on Tuesday night.

Waterman accepted the DSU men’s basketball job in June after 30 seasons of coaching high school basketball in Delaware at Sanford School, where he won eight state championships.

“We’re really trying to build a foundation,” Waterman said. “I was just explaining to those guys in the locker room, anything that is built to last has to have a firm foundation. That’s what we’re working on right now. I think we’re identifying characteristics of our team — we want to play tough, we want to play hard and we want to play together. I thought we had some stretches where we did that tonight.”

Junior Dom Fragala paced the Hornets with a game-high 16 points. Freshman Khyrie Staten scored 11 points in his first collegiate game, all in the first half. Fifth-year senior Myles Carter also netted 11 points while freshman Christopher Smith added 10 points on 5-of-5 shooting.

Corey Perkins, who played for Waterman at Sanford, contributed seven points and six assists.

“All the guys, including me, we love the coaches, it’s a lot of hard work on the court and good energy in the gym,” Fragala said. “We played well tonight, could have done a couple of things better, but we moved the ball well and a lot of people got to get in the game and score so that was good.”

The Hornets began on a 25-2 run as Cairn missed 20 of its 21 first attempts from the field.

“We were really, really good defensively in that first half,” Waterman said. “We were disciplined, guys were staying in the system, trusting the defense and not jumping out. We got off to a strong start, kind of got away from it for a bit but they were able to refocus in the second half. That’s a mark of a good team, to regain focus and keep your composure.”

Cairn is the first of two Division III opponents for the Hornets this week. They will host Salisbury on Friday at 7 p.m.

Waterman said he doesn’t want the Hornets to worry about who they are playing, instead focusing on installing his new schemes.

“Right now it’s really not about our opponents, it’s about us,” Waterman said. “We’re focusing on what our systems are going to be and how we’re going to execute. We’re putting most of our time and energy into that. Once we establish our identity, then we’ll figure out how to attack people as we prepare for the MEAC.”