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Delaware falls to Delaware State 66-53

12/07/2014, 6:15pm EST

By Teddy Bailey

Teddy Bailey (@TheTeddyBailey)
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For the first time this season, Delaware entered Sunday’s in-state rivalry game against Delaware State with some sort of momentum. The Blue Hens were coming off of a gritty 73-69 defeat at the hands of Army in their season opener. In a game where Delaware shot a season-high 46.9 percent, they were determined to secure their first win of the season.

On Sunday afternoon, however, the Blue Hens were unable to find any sort of rhythm or consistency on the offensive side of the floor.

Delaware State’s Kendall Gray scored 21 points and corralled 11 rebounds as Delaware State took care of Delaware 66-53 in Newark, De.

The Blue Hens (0-7) shot just 17-56 (30.4 percent) from the floor, including 6-27 (22.7 percent) from beyond the arc. Delaware has shot over 35 percent just once this season.

The Hornets (4-4), were a few days removed from a 75-60 loss at Hawaii, along with a dramatic 72-65 upset at Wake Forest on November 28th.

“They have some talent over there, said Delaware head coach Monte Ross. “It starts with Kendall Gray, who could play in a whole lot of teams in this country – let alone our league. He’s a walking double-double. When you have that, that’s a tremendous luxury to have.

Freshman guards Kory Holden and Chivarsky Corbett led the Hens with a team-high 15 points each.

“We get a lot of good shots,” Holden said. “Last game they dropped for us. I guess this game they just didn’t fall for us.”

Holden and Corbett had cut it to 53-44 with just over six minutes remaining on a combined three 3-pointers, but it was too little too late for head coach Monte Ross’s squad.

“I think that we as a team are built a certain way.” Ross said. “We’re built to play to the final buzzer, and we did that. I thought that the team could have packed it in when we got down 19, but I was very pleased that they kept going and we kept fighting. I think we cut it to 9 at one point. We just couldn’t get another stop.”

Sophomores Devonne Pinkard and Cazmon Hayes, two of the most experienced players on Delaware’s roster, struggled mightily from the floor. Pinkard has had a rough start to the season offensively, shooting 13-56 (23 percent) from the floor in seven games. Hayes had been very effective to open the season, but has cooled off since. The two guards were a combined 4-26 (15 percent) shooting on Sunday.

“4 for 26 leaves you scratching your head.” Ross said. “One of the things that I told the staff is that we’ve been in situations where we couldn’t get good shots within our offense. With this team, we’ve taken care of the ball and have gotten good shots. We just have to go to work and shoot. The looks that we are getting are good looks.”

Delaware State controlled and led the entirety of the first half, courtesy of a rough twenty minutes for Delaware. The Blue Hens shot just 7-25 (28 percent) from the floor, including 2-11 (18.2 percent) from beyond the arc. Sophomores Devonne Pinkard and Cazmon Hayes struggled to find the bottom of the net, shooting 3-17 in the first frame. Kendall Gray’s eight points and five rebounds led the way for the Hornets, who took a 32-21 lead over the Hens at the break.

Delaware will not play until a Dec. 18 showdown with Temple due to final exams. At 0-7, every game is vital for confidence reasons.

“No one’s going to feel sorry for you.” Ross said with a laugh. “There’s a whole lot of teams that are looking at us like ‘Good” because of what we’ve been able to do the last couple years.”

This was the 15th all-time meeting between the two Delaware schools; the Hens now lead 11-4 in the series.