Boxscore

NEWARK, Del. -- Tesia Harris (at right) and Elena Delle Donne each surpassed the 20-point mark and the University of Delaware led wire-to-wire in an 84-55 rout over William & Mary in Colonial Athletic Association women's basketball action Thursday night at the Bob Carpenter Center.

Delaware (14-7, 6-4 CAA) posted its second highest point total of the season and matched its most lopsided victory margin in winning the third of its last four outings.

The Hens also improved to 7-2 at home this season and set the all-time single season home attendance record before an appreciative crowd of 2,042. Delaware has now defeated the Tribe 11 times in 15 all-time meetings with this win the biggest victory margin ever for the Hens in the series.

Harris connected for a game and season-high 26 points, including four three-pointers, Delle Donne knocked down 23 points and added nine rebounds and three block shots, and Danielle Parker (bottom left) chipped in with 10 points and nine boards as the Hens jumped out to a 7-0 lead and were never threatened the entire night.

Ariene Jenkins provided another nice effort off the bench with seven points and six rebounds while point guard Kayla Miller dished out five assists and did not commit a turnover, and Jaquetta May added six points and five rebounds.

“This is my kind of game,” said an upbeat Delaware head coach Tina Martin following the win. “Enough with those heart stoppers and buzzer beaters. This was a complete game by us today – everybody contributed. Everybody played well. We executed, we shared the ball and I was very happy with our man-to-man defense. I told the kids that I wanted to see their character, and they showed me their character. I thought they really took care of business tonight…a really solid effort put forth.”

The Hens have had seven games decided by four points or less this season and are 3-4 in those contests, including a heart-breaking 60-58 overtime loss on the road to CAA foe Drexel in their most recent outing on Sunday.

William & Mary (10-11, 3-7 CAA), which lost its third straight game and its fifth in the last six outings, could not get much offensively from anyone other than Taysha Pye, who finished with 22 points and seven rebounds. Tiffany Benson added 10 points and seven rebounds while Emily Correal pulled a team-high nine rebounds before fouling out.

Pye established a new BCC record for field goal attempts in a game as she converted 10 of 26 shots, breaking the mark of 25 attempts by Delaware's Cindy Johnson vs Maine on Jan. 25, 2001.

Delaware pulled down a season-high 25 offensive rebounds and finished with a dominating 46-35 advantage on the boards while committing a season-low seven turnovers and draining 6 of 13 three-point attempts.

The Tribe did connect on 15 of 29 second half shots from the field, but could never recover from a 10 for 34 shooting performance in the opening half that resulted in a 41-21 deficit at the break. William & Mary could also manage just 2 of 12 shooting from beyond the three-point arc the entire night.

Delle Donne drained a three-pointer at the top of the key just seven seconds into the contest, Parker followed with a layup, and Harris hit two free throws at the 18:45 to mark as the Hens jumped out to a quick 7-0 lead and never looked back.

The lead reached 13 points after a three-pointer by Harris at the 14:17 mark and climbed to 20 points after another trey from Harris with 5:04 left pushed the advantage to 35-15. The Hens stormed into intermission up 41-21 as Parker hit a jumper with four seconds left.

The outcome was never in doubt in the second half as the Hens made sure the lead did not fall below 15 points and scored 13 of the final 15 points of the game to cruise to the 29-point win.

The Hens, who will return to action Sunday when they host George Mason, broke the all-time single season attendance mark as they pushed the total to 23,584 (2,620 average) to surpass the previous record of 22,498 set in 1996-97 with four games still to play.