GREENSBORO, NC – A slow start doomed the University of Delaware men’s basketball squad Saturday afternoon as the Blue Hens were held without a field goal for the first nine minutes of the game and a furious rally fell short in a 74-64 non-league loss to host UNC Greensboro at Fleming Gymnasium.

The Blue Hens are still looking for their first win of the season for head coach Monté Ross as they fell to 0-9 while UNC Greensboro won its third straight game to improve to 5-6. The Hens’ 0-9 start is the team’s worst since opening 0-12 during the 1929-30 campaign and the team’s 10 straight losses is the longest losing skein since an 11-game streak in 1978-79.

Junior forward Herb Courtney (at right) once again paced the Blue Hens as he posted his second straight 20-point effort with 21 points and five rebounds while Zaire Taylor posted his sixth straight double-figure scoring effort with 13 points, Calvin Cannon came off the bench to add 12 points, and Sam McMahon contributed nine points and five rebounds.

UNC Greensboro got a career effort from freshman forward Ryan Stywall, who hit on 9 of 13 shots from the field for a career-high 23 points and pulled a career and game-high 15 rebounds. His previous high scoring effort was eight points. Fellow forward Kyle Hines hit on 11 of 18 shots from the field and finished with a game-high 27 points to go with eight rebounds while Dwayne Johnson dished out a game-high seven assists.

The Spartans shot 59 percent (13 of 22) from the field in the second half and posted a commanding 41-27 advantage on the boards. The Hens committed just 13 turnovers but were hurt by 38 percent field goal shooting (24 of 62), hitting just 7 of 28 shots in the opening stanza.

“I think the intensity that we started out with was not good enough to beat anyone, let along a good ball club like UNC Greensboro,” said Ross, whose squad will continue aneight-game road swing with three games vs. Niagara, LaSalle, and Holy Cross at the LaSalle Tournament Dec. 28-30 in Philadelphia. “UNCG established its will early and it was men against boys in the first half and early in the second half. Our efficiency was lacking tonight. We’ll take two days off (for holiday break) and do some soul searching and see what we can do to help us be successful early in the game.”

Despite the narrow 10-point loss, it was the game’s opening minutes that were most crucial. UNC Greensboro jumped out to a 19-2 lead in the first nine minutes as Delaware missed its first 10 shots from the field and didn’t connect until McMahon’s three-pointer with 10:41 left in the stanza.

The Spartans went up by as much as 21 points in the first half before a Delaware rally cut the lead to 32-21 with 3:08 after two Cannon free throws. UNCG eventually took a 37-24 lead into the break.

Another slow start to open the second half again proved costly to the Blue Hens. The Spartans broke out early in the second half, outscoring Delaware 11-2 over the first three minutes of the stanza, including six points by Stywall, to go up 48-26. UNC Greensboro built its biggest lead at 62-39 with 7:59 remaining before a furious Delaware comeback fell short.

Delaware followed with a 15-3 run as Courtney’s dunk off a Taylor steal with 3:31 left and layup at the 2:36 mark cut the lead to 65-54. After Hines hit a layup and Hickman followed with two free throws for UNCG, Courtney and Darrell Johnson followed with consecutive three-pointers to cut the lead to 69-60 with 1:01 left. A Courtney layup with 18 seconds left cut the gap to 71-64 but the Hens never got closer.

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