BOSTON – There are several things Delaware can take away from Sunday’s 70-68 win at Boston University. It was full of positives both in the immediate and going forward.
Let’s start with the easy one. The Blue Hens were affected by the snowstorm that hit the northeast, arriving in town late Saturday after their plane sat on the runway for three hours. They took a bus back down after the game, taking no chances dealing with possible flight difficulties.
“I was really proud of our guys, the way they stepped up,” said head coach Monte Ross. “They kept fighting, they kept digging.”
That was hardly all. Delaware won on the road against a team that should contend in its conference, despite their best player struggling in part because of foul trouble. They also got a big lift from a player who started slowly, and won despite blowing an eight-point lead late in the game.
During the early part of the season, the Blue Hens have basically developed a big three of Marc Egerson, Alphonso Dawson and Jawan Carter. Egerson was not himself on Sunday, and when he picked up his fourth foul with the Blue Hens down by two early in the second half, that didn’t look like the best sign.
But Dawson, Carter and others stepped up, and the Blue Hens quickly tied the game and then took the lead. Dawson stole the ball and Carter got a layup, then a three-pointer by Dawson gave them a lead they would not relinquish until the Terriers capped an 11-2 run with 13 seconds left. On two occasions, the lead reached eight before Egerson came back in the game.
“Marc’s a big piece for us,” said Dawson, who scored 15 of his 20 points in the first half to keep Delaware in the game. “To have guys come off the bench like D.J. Boney and contribute like he did, and just to have everybody step up as a team and come together makes a big win.”
Boney’s play was noteworthy not just in his being the hero by hitting the game-winning three-pointer with five seconds left. Boney missed the first four free throws he took, but bounced back to score a career-high 14 points. He also hit several key shots at times when the lead was either one or two points, allowing them to keep the lead a little longer. It would have been easy to basically take himself out of the game after that kind of start, but he didn’t do it.
“It speaks volumes about his character,” said Ross. “It’s hard to go to the foul line and miss four straight, and I was really dumbfounded. In the second half, when we went to him, he just blocked that right out of his mind and kept playing.”
Boney isn’t known for his scoring. Ross has always liked his intangibles, and that’s the biggest reason he gets the minutes he does. This team has plenty of talented guards, so it can be easy for Boney to get lost in the shuffle a bit. His minutes are down from last season, and entering the game he was 4-23 from long range on the season. He went 3-5 from there on Sunday in 19 minutes.
Carter, the newest of the big three, has scored in double figures in every game since the second game of the season. He assisted on the winning basket, capping off a day where he had 16 points and nine assists with just three turnovers. Not only was Egerson not himself, but Brian Johnson had an off day as well with no assists and three turnovers, and as such Carter’s efforts to create for others was huge.
At this point, one can see that the Blue Hens have several good pieces to the puzzle. They aren’t very deep, especially in the frontcourt, but if Jim Ledsome and Adam Pegg can be serviceable, they can manage with Egerson essentially playing the power forward spot and taking a post player out on the perimeter at the offensive end. Johnson is arguably the best point guard not named Eric Maynor in the CAA, while Carter, Dawson and Egerson give them plenty of offense and rebounding.
“We try not to miss a beat if one of the parts is taken out of the puzzle,” Ross said about their effort with Egerson sitting due to foul trouble. “We just want to place another piece into the puzzle and keep going. I thought we did that this afternoon.”
Delaware overcame adversity before the game and during it. They also saw players persevere, and Ross is starting to get a good handle on this team. He knows that part of why his bench hasn’t played as well as he would like is on him, noting that he hasn’t given many of the reserves enough good stretches of playing time. He is ready to change that, and Sunday’s game could certainly be a step in that direction, especially since he was rewarded for sticking with Boney after his four early free throw misses.
The win also comes at a good time for Delaware. Two more home dates remain in the non-conference schedule, then CAA play begins in earnest with two more at home. They will enter in an 0-1 hole after losing at Old Dominion earlier in the month, but this win can give them a real boost, as could two more wins to close out the slate. That would put them above .500 overall.
“Going into conference, we’ve got the confidence,” said Dawson. “Guys are starting to gain even more trust in each other. Coach let us know that it’s not easy to come up here and get a win.”
If the Blue Hens continue what they showed on Sunday, they will have come away with more than a win on the bottom line.
