Photos Courtesy of Mark Campbell

Boxscore

NEWARK, Del. -- While freshman sensation Elena Delle Donne sat out with an ankle injury, Blue Hen junior guard Tesia Harris (at right) picked up the slack as she recorded her first double-double of the season with 25 points and 10 rebounds in leading the University of Delaware to a 60-49 comeback victory over Northeastern in Colonial Athletic Association women's basketball action Thursday night at the Bob Carpenter Center.

Harris, who entered the game as the Hens' second leading scorer at 12.3 points per game, scored 18 second half points as the Blue Hens (18-9, 10-6 CAA) overcame a nine-point second half deficit and cruised to the 11-point victory.

Harris surpassed the 20-point mark for the fifth time this season as she drained all three of her three-point attempts and was good on 10 of 11 free throws, including eight straight during a pivotal stretch in the final minutes.

Freshman Danielle Parker (bottom left) also added 13 points and eight rebounds and led a dominating 40-22 advantage on the boards as Delaware, which earned votes in this past week’s USA Today Top 25 poll, downed Northeastern for the 16th straight time and improved to 23-10 all-time vs. the Huskies.

The Hens, who have won two straight and three of their last four, have already surpassed last year’s 15-win season and are just two victories shy of hitting the 20-win mark for the eighth time in the last 12 seasons.

The Hens pulled out the win despite the absence of Delle Donne, the team's 6-5 freshman All-American candidate who currently leads the nation in scoring with 26.9 points per game, including an NCAA freshman record 54 points vs. James Madison on Feb. 18.

She injured an ankle walking on campus on Tuesday and her availability for the game was not determined until hours before tip-off. Delle Donne, who missed two games back in December with an injury to the same ankle, is expected to play when the Hens travel to Towson Sunday afternoon.

“It wasn’t a very pretty first half but we went into halftime and made a couple of adjustments defensively,” said Delaware head coach Tina Martin. “I’m really excited to get this win and certainly playing without Elena this late into the season is an adjustment. [Danielle] Parker was all over the place. I told her at the end of the game that I thought her effort was tremendous. With Tesia [Harris] I tried to post her up and it worked. Kayla [Miller] did a great job of finding her. We were able to read them and that allowed us to do some things. Certainly Tesia’s aggressiveness at the end helped us. This was a great win for us from the standpoint that we’re playing for something. We’re trying to get wins and build on our confidence for the future.”

The Huskies (12-15, 7-9 CAA), who had a three-game winning streak snapped, stayed in the game thanks to their nine three-pointers, including five by guard Kashaia Cannon. Cannon finished with 17 points while Kim Carr and Brittany Wilson each contributed 10 points apiece. Northeastern had entered the game as the top three-point shooting team in the CAA, converting 6.5 per game.

Delaware, which stayed in the hunt for a first-round bye in the upcoming CAA Tournament, improved to 10-2 at home this season as the Hens delighted a crowd of 3,142, the third highest single game women's crowd in UD history.

The Blue Hens suffered through a tough first-half shooting performance that saw them score just one field goal over the final nine minutes as they went into intermission down 27-21. Things didn’t get much better in the second half as Delaware fell behind by nine points early and were still trailing 31-24 with 16:39 left to play. The Hens went one agonizing period of just over 13 minutes in which they converted just one field goal.

But things changed quickly as the Blue Hens gained control over the next seven minutes and never looked back in posting the double-digit victory. Delaware went on a 10-2 run to take the lead, getting consecutive three-pointers by Harris and Carra and a jumper by Jasmine Gibson to go up 34-33 with 11:58 left.

Northeastern regained the lead briefly at 36-34 thanks to a three-pointer by Dani Iervolino 28 seconds later, but Delaware’s Jaquetta May tied the game with a jumper and Kayla Miller put the Hens up for good at 39-36 with 10:16 remaining on a three-pointer. Those baskets were the foundation of a 9-0 run, including another three-pointer by Harris, that put Delaware up 43-36 with 8:15 remaining.

The Huskies made one more push to regain the lead, using a 7-3 run capped by another three-pointer by Cannon with 4:53 remaining to cut the UD lead to 46-44. But Harris saved the Hens once again as she converted eight straight free throws over a span of 2:22 to push the lead back to 54-46 with 1:44 left and Northeastern never got closer than five the rest of the way.