Men's Basketball - BlueHens.com - Delaware Athletics

University of Delaware Cruises to Third Straight Win with 71-53 CAA Victory Over UNCW

February 8, 2012

• Boxscore
• Photo Gallery(Chris Permar)
• Photo Gallery2 (Mark Jordan)

Photos Courtesy of Chris Permar (Saddler) and Chris Mlynarczyk (Hagins)

NEWARK, Del. -- The University of Delaware men’s basketball squad ran its winning streak to three games and reached the .500 mark for the first time since early January as the Blue Hens broke away early in the second half and cruised to a 71-53 Colonial Athletic Association triumph over UNCW Wednesday night at the Bob Carpenter Center.

Delaware sophomore guard Devon Saddler (at right) surpassed the 20-point mark for the 11th time this season and for the fourth time in the last five games as he dropped in 14 of his game-high 25 points after halftime to lead the Blue Hen surge. He drained four of Delaware’s eight three-pointers.

The Hens improved to 12-12 overall and to 8-6 in league play with the victory. The 8-6 league record ties the team's best 14-game mark since joining the CAA in 2001-02. Delaware also started out 8-6 during the 2003-04 and 2007-08 seasons.

Delaware, which avenged an 80-75 setback to the Seahawks back on Jan. 2 in Wilmington, N.C., also got 15 points and seven rebounds from reigning CAA Player of the Week Jamelle Hagins (below left) while Josh Brinkley chipped in with eight points and eight rebounds and Kyle Anderson contributed nine points and seven rebounds.

“This was a mature effort on our guy’s part tonight,” said Delaware head coach Monté Ross. “Defensively we hung in there in the first half when our shots weren’t falling. We were able to get the same class of shots in the second half and were able to knock them down to extend the lead. Our guys are getting more comfortable in their roles now and the team is playing its best basketball of the season.”

UNCW (9-15, 5-9), which has now lost five of its last six games and eight of its last 10 outings, was led by Keith Rendleman’s 17 points and seven rebounds. Donte Morales added 11 points and Cedrick Williams came off the bench to add six points and a game-high 10 rebounds.

Delaware, which also won its fourth straight home game, has now defeated UNCW four straight time at the Bob Carpenter Center.

A hard-fought first half saw neither team lead by more than a point over the final six minutes. A dunk by Delaware’s Jarvis Threatt (eight points) with 1:24 left in the stanza sent the Hens into halftime with a 28-27 lead.

Rendleman opened the second half with a jumper 48 seconds in to give the Seahawks what would prove to be their final lead of the game at 29-28. Hagins finished off a conventional three-point play just under two minutes later to start a 14-2 run over the next seven minutes of play that would give the Hens the lead for good at 42-31. Hagins scored seven points during the run with Brinkley adding five and Anderson hitting a deep three-pointer.

Two free throws by Rendleman with 12:25 left to play ended the Blue Hens streak and narrowed the gap to 42-33, but Delaware’ Anderson followed with another three-pointer and the Seahawks would never get closer than double-digits the rest of the way.

Delaware will be looking to make it four straight wins this Saturday when the Hens travel to Atlanta to take on Georgia State at 2 p.m. The Hens have not put together a four-game win streak since winning five straight early last season.

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