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UD men’s basketball tops Hofstra in CAA opener

UD senior guard Mike Ames, right, scored 21 points in Saturday’s win over Hofstra.

9:25 a.m., Jan. 5, 2004--The University of Delaware men’s basketball team opened Colonial Athletic Association action with a 66-59 victory over Hofstra University on Saturday afternoon at the Bob Carpenter Sports/Convocation Center.

With the victory, the Fightin’ Blue Hens improved to 7-3 overall and 1-0 in the conference. The start is UD’s best 10-game start in four seasons under Head Coach David Henderson.

UD now prepares for a CAA road game at Virginia Commonwealth University on Wednesday, Jan. 7. Tip-off will be at 7:30 p.m. at the Stuart C. Siegel Center in Richmond.

Like UD, Virginia Commonwealth has opened the season 7-3, with victories over LaSalle University and Western Kentucky University. The Rams opened CAA play with a 71-60 victory over the College of William and Mary.

Virginia Commonwealth is led by three players who average in double figures. They are senior guard Domonic Jones (17.2 points per game), junior forward Michael Doles (11.9) and senior center Troy Godwin (10.5).

The Rams are coached by Jeff Capel, who, like Henderson, played at Duke University.

In Saturday’s victory over Hofstra, which defeated UD in both games last season, the Hens were led by senior guard Mike Ames, who scored a game-high 21 points.

UD junior point guard Mike Slattery added 15 points and seven assists.

UD's leading scorer at 15.9 points per game, Ames bounced back from a six-point effort in a 75-54 loss to No. 10 ranked St. Joseph's University on Dec. 30.

Against Hofstra, Ames connected on all 10 shots from the foul line and hit five of 13 shots from the field. It was his 12th career 20-point effort.

Slattery hit on six of 12 shots from the field, including two three-pointers. Junior forward Robin Wentt added 10 points and eight rebounds, and sophomore Harding Nana came off the bench to pull down a game-high 13 rebounds.

Hofstra, which owns a win over St. John's University of the Big East Conference, dropped its second straight game to fall to 4-7 overall and 0-1 in CAA.

Forwards Kenny Adeleke and Loren Stokes led Hofstra with 17 points each. Adeleke also had 11 rebounds.

UD, which has now won 15 straight conference home openers, including a perfect 12-0 mark at the Bob Carpenter Center, played well under the basket and had a 49-35 rebounding advantage behind the play of Nana, Wentt and David Lunn, who also pulled down six rebounds.

UD also forced 20 turnovers by Hofstra and committed just four of its own in the second half.

The first half featured five ties, and neither team led by more than six points as the Hens jumped out to a slim 30-27 advantage going into intermission. Ames and Slattery combined for 22 points in the first half.

Hofstra gained the lead early in the second half when Adeleke nailed a three-pointer for a 36-34 lead.

UD then built leads of seven points three times in the first 15 minutes of the second half but each time Hofstra battled back.

The Hens went up 49-42 with 11:34 remaining, but Hofstra used a three-pointer by Gibran Washington with 9:51 left to tie the game at 49-49.

The Hens rallied to take another seven-point advantage at 60-53 with 5:34 remaining, but Hofstra battled back to cut the lead to three at 60-57 on a lay-up by Stokes with 1:51 left.

UD then took control for good as Nana hit a jumper with 47 seconds remaining, and Ames hit on all four free throw attempts in a 13-second span for the final margin.

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