Boxscore / Photo Courtesy of Mark Campbell

NEWARK, Del. -- After letting a 17-point second half vanish, the University of Delaware bounced back from a late deficit and knocked off Colonial Athletic Association contender George Mason 66-58 Thursday night in men's basketball action at the Bob Carpenter Center.

The Blue Hens (11-15, 5-9 CAA), who won their fourth straight home game, got a big 20-point, 14-rebound effort from Marc Egerson (at right) and Jawan Carter scored seven of his 19 points over the pivotal final three minutes as Delaware avenged a 23-point setback to George Mason back in January.

Egerson, the CAA's leading rebounder, amassed his league-leading 12th double-double of the season and surpassed the 20-point mark for the 10th time this season. Brian Johnson added 11 points and dished out a season-high nine assists while committing just one turnover.

"I thought our guys really hung in there tonight," said Delaware head coach Monté Ross. "Our defense was good throughout and we were mentally tough for 40 minutes. We were able to get some opportunistic baskets and scored in a variety of ways in the second half."

Mason (16-8, 9-5 CAA), which entered the contest just one and a half games out of first place in the league standings, lost its fifth straight road game. Darryl Monroe was virtually unstoppable inside as he hit 12 of 15 shots from the field and scored a career-high 27 points while pulling 11 rebounds for his sixth double-double of the season. John Vaughan was the Patriots' only other double figure scorer with 10 points.

Delaware connected on 11 of 27 three-pointers from the game, with five different players hitting at least one, and committed just seven turnovers. But the Hens had to overcome a tough shooting performance in the second half when they let the 17-point bulge disappear by hitting only 6 of 20 shots for the stanza, including just 1 of 11 during one stretch.

Mason, which battled back from the 45-28 deficit three minutes into the second half and eventually took a 54-52 lead with 4:13 remaining, missed on all nine of its three-point attempts and drained only 10 of 23 free throws, including a 3 for 10 performance by Monroe.

The Blue Hens played some of their most inspired basketball of the season in the first half as they broke an early 12-12 tie with 12:51 left by outscoring Mason 17-7 over a stretch of seven minutes to take a double-digit lead at 29-19 with 5:58 left.

The next six minutes of the half were even more productive as Egerson drained three three-pointer the rest of the stanza to lift the Hens to their biggest halftime lead of the year at 42-28. George Mason managed just one field goal over the final 5:40 to fall behind.

Delaware extended the lead to 17 points at 45-28 early in the second stanza as Jim Ledsome opened the half with a dunk and Egerson followed with a free throw at the 16:32 mark.

But the Hens went cold and the Patriots capitalized. George Mason raced back into the game with an 18-2 run over the next eight minutes, getting six of those points from Vaughan, including a layup with 8:10 left to cut the deficit to 47-46. Delaware hit just one of seven field goals attempts and turned the ball over five times during the disastrous run.

Carter snapped the sting by hitting two free throws for Delaware with 7:40 left and a three-pointer by D.J. Boney with 6:52 remaining pushed the lead back to four. But Mason rallied again and took its first lead since early in the first half as Vaughan converted a fastbreak layup and Monroe bulled his way in for two straight baskets in close for a 54-52 lead with 4:13 remaining.

Delaware gained the lead back on a Carter jumper with 2:52 left before a dunk by Monroe at the 2:19 mark tied the game for the seventh time at 56-56. But that dunk proved to be the last basket of the night for the Patriots.

The Hens finally finished what they started as they took the lead for good at 59-56 on a three-pointer by Johnson with 2:03 left. Egerson added a layup at the1:19 mark and the Hens connected on five free throws over the final 28 seconds, including four by Carter, to seal the verdict.