Boxscore

NEWARK, Del. -- The University of Delaware sent its two seniors out in style Wednesday night as the Blue Hens continued their dominance over Hofstra with a 59-41 Colonial Athletic Association women's basketball victory over the Pride in the regular season finale at the Bob Carpenter Center.

Freshman Elena Delle Donne (at right) matched her national-leading scoring average with 27 points while also adding 10 rebounds and seven blocked shots and fellow freshman Danielle Parker (bottom left) notched her first double-double of the season with 10 points and 11 rebounds as the Hens (19-10, 11-7 CAA) clinched the No. 5 seed in next week's CAA Tournament at James Madison University at Harrisonburg, Va.

Tesia Harris added 11 points and seven rebounds for the Blue Hens, who improved to 11-2 at home this season. Delle Donne, an All-American candidate who returned to action after missing two games with an ankle injury, overcame a tough 5 for 17 shooting night from the field by draining 16 of 17 free throws. She is vying to become the first freshman in NCAA women’s basketball history to lead the nation in scoring.

Hofstra (18-12, 11-7 CAA), which had a four-game winning streak snapped and dropped to 7-7 on the road this season to earn the CAA Tournament No. 6 seed, shot just 25 percent from the field and managed just 3 of 17 shooting from beyond the three-point arc. Shante Evans, the CAA’s leading rebounder, led the Pride with 14 points and eight rebounds while Nicole Capurso came off the bench to add 11 points and Candice Bellocchio and Aamira Terry each pulled nine rebounds.

Delaware, which needs just one more win this season to reach the 20-win mark for the eighth time in the last 11 seasons, continued its dominance over Hofstra as the Hens improved to 44-9 all-time vs. the Pride, including an incredible 25-1 mark in games played in Newark.

“This was a very good win for us,” said Delaware head coach Tina Martin. “I was very happy with an overall team effort. We were very focused and it’s a great way to enter the tournament. All that matters to us right now is that we need to prepare and really need to be ready to go for tournament time. We’re going for 20-plus wins. I think we’re a very competitive team. It’s a great way to end the regular season and now we need to get ourselves ready to go battle in the tournament.”

The game marked the final regular season home game for forward Ariene Jenkins and center Farrah Ferguson. Jenkins had a rebound in two minutes of action while Ferguson had a blocked shot in two minutes of play.

Delaware jumped out to a 26-19 lead at intermission following a sloppy first half in which the Blue Hens shot just 10 of 31 from the field (.323) and Hofstra managed just 6 of 26 shooting (.231), including missing its first five attempts. After the Pride overcame an early seven-point deficit by taking the lead at 16-15 on two Bellocchio free throws with 7:01 left, the Hens took over the rest of the stanza by outscoring Hofstra 9-0 over the next five minutes to go up 24-16.

Delaware pushed the lead to double digits early in the second half as Lauren Carra started the half with a layup and then added a three-pointer at the 16:08 mark to give the Hens a 33-23 advantage. The Pride answered with a three-pointer by Capurso to narrow the deficit to seven, but that was as close as they would get the rest of the way as Delle Donne, who scored 18 second half points, followed with a jumper and added three free throws minutes later to push the lead to 38-26.

The Hens pushed the lead to 18 points with 6:40 left after Jocelyn Bailey converted back-to-back layups for a 50-32 lead and enjoyed their biggest lead of the night at 59-39 on a conventional three-point play by Delle Donne with 1:51 remaining.