RALEIGH, NC -- Freshman guard Zaire Taylor hit on all eight of his shots from the field and finished with 22 points in his collegiate debut to lead the University of Delaware men’s basketball squad to a big 77-57 win over The Citadel in the opening round of the Hispanic College Fund Classic Friday night at North Carolina State’s RBC Center.

Taylor, a 6-4 guard from Staten Island, NY who played his high school basketball at Charish Prep in North Carolina, was perfect from the field, including hitting on all three of three-point attempts to lead the Blue Hens (1-0) in their season opener. Taylor’s 22 points were the most scored by a Delaware player in his Blue Hen debut in school history
and the sixth highest single game scoring total ever by a UD freshman. He also dished out five of Delaware’s nine assists.

Senior guard Rulon Washington added four three-pointers and finished with 16 points for Delaware while All-American candidate Harding Nana scored nine points and pulled a game-high 15 rebounds. Nana led the CAA in both scoring (18.5 ppg) and rebounding (10.4 rpg) a year ago.

“We played hard all night and our defensive intensity really set the tone early,” said Delaware head coach David Henderson, who opened his sixth season at the helm of the Hens. “Our guards put good pressure on them defensively which allowed us to force some turnovers and get some easy baskets.”

The Hens, who posted a record of 11-20 a year ago, won their season opener for the second time in the last three years. The 22-point winning margin was the highest for Delaware in its opener since a 91-63 victory over Delaware State in its 1996-97 opener.

The Citadel (0-1), which went 12-16 a year ago as a member of the Southern Conference, got a team-high 15 points and eight rebounds off the bench from forward Demetrius Nelson while Mark Schiavoni added 11 points off the bench.

Host North Carolina State (1-0) will take on The Citadel in Saturday’s second round at 6 p.m. followed by Delaware taking on Stetson (0-1) at 8 p.m. North Carolina State downed Stetson 91-61 in their opener Friday.

The Citadel took a 3-2 lead in the opening minutes but Delaware took off on a 20-2 run over the next 10 minutes to take control. The Hens led 34-11 at one point in the first half and took a 38-16 lead into halftime. The Citadel hit just 5 of 34 shots from the field in the
opening 20 minutes and connected on just 20 of 73 shots from the field for the game, including 4 of 22 from beyond the three-point arc.

Delaware, which overcame 28 turnovers, never let up in the second half, upping the lead to as much as 32 points at 53-21 with 13:37 left to play. The Bulldogs never got closer than 19 points until the final minute of play. Delaware enjoyed a 54-38 advantage on the boards.

Boxscore