UD Home | UDaily | UDaily-Alumni | UDaily-Parents


HIGHLIGHTS

Delaware's Howard is selected All-Colonial

Elena DelleDonne joins UD volleyball team

Three Blue Hens named football All-Americans

Blue Hen wins bronze in Olympic baseball

Delaware football sets season ticket record

UD men's ice hockey offers season tickets

UD men's basketball sets non-conference schedule

WVUD announces fall football broadcasts

Hitchens Classic benefits UD women's athletics

Flacco selected by Baltimore in NFL draft

More news on UDaily

Subscribe to UDaily's e-mail services


UDaily is produced by the Office of Public Relations
150 South College Ave.
Newark, DE 19716-2701
(302) 831-2791

UD men’s basketball defeats George Mason

Senior guard Mike Ames scored 22 points in the victory over George Mason.
10:07 a.m., Jan. 29, 2004--The University of Delaware men’s basketball team won an important Colonial Athletic Association game Wednesday night, defeating highly regarded George Mason University 74-65 at the Bob Carpenter Sports/Convocation Center.

With the victory, the Fightin’ Blue Hens improved to 11-7 overall and 5-4 in the CAA, climbing into a tie for fourth place with George Mason.

Virginia Commonwealth University leads the conference with a record of 7-2, followed by Drexel and Old Dominion at 6-3, the University of North Carolina Wilmington at 6-4, and UD and George Mason at 5-4.

UD will now take to the road, where it has been unable to win a CAA game in four tries this season, for four of its next five games. The Hens will play at James Madison on Saturday and at Hofstra on Wednesday, Feb. 4.

The Hens will return home to the friendly confines of the Bob Carpenter Center, where they are unbeaten in conference play, to face Towson at 2 p.m., Saturday, Feb. 7. They will then travel to William & Mary on Feb. 11 and Old Dominion on Feb. 14.

In Wednesday’s victory, UD senior guard Mike Ames scored nine of his team-high 22 points in the first four minutes of the second half as the Hens took control of the game.

Ames, who notched the sixth 20-point game of the season and the 15th of his career, also knocked down four of his five shots from beyond the three-point arc. Ames now has 207 career three-point baskets, which is four away from the UD record.

Overall, the Hens shot 51 percent from the field (28 of 55) and matched a season-low with just 10 turnovers.

Junior point guard Mike Slattery and freshmen forwards Herb Courtney and Lebo Maepa each added nine points for the Hens. Slattery also had eight assists and Maepa came off the bench to pull down a team-high six rebounds.

George Mason, the pre-season CAA favorite, lost its second straight game to fall to 12-6 overall and 5-4 in the CAA. Powerful forward Jai Lewis had another impressive game for the Patriots, hitting on 10 of 12 shots from the field to finish with a career-high 26 points. Lewis also had nine rebounds.

Also for George Mason, Lamar Butler scored 12 points, Trent Wurtz had 10 points and eight rebounds, Mark Davis had 10 points and Terry Reynolds had 11 assists.

UD led most of the first half until George Mason converted a five-point play in the final minute to take a 37-36 lead into the break. The Hens led 36-30 with 1:32 left in the half but Davis hit two free throws and then knocked down a three-pointer with 46 seconds remaining. Wurtz was fouled after the basket and followed with two free throws to give George Mason the one-point halftime cushion.

After Lewis converted a three-point play 13 seconds into the second half, UD took over behind the hot shooting of Ames. The senior hit a jumper and a three-pointer within 39 seconds of each other to put the Hens up for good at 41-40 with 18:52 remaining.

George Mason failed to score another field goal until Lewis converted a lay-up with 13:18 remaining. By then, the UD lead had stretched to 52-44.

George Mason regrouped and used a 9-2 run, capped by a Butler three-pointer with 10:07 left, to cut the UD lead to 54-53 but could never get closer.

The Hens answered with six free throws and a jumper by Calvin Smith to go back up 62-55 with 5:27 left and never led by fewer than seven points the rest of the way.

Conference notes: The CAA reports that the conference is ranked 13th out of 31 NCAA Division I conference by both the Collegiate Basketball News Ratings Percentage Index (RPI) report and the Sagarin Ratings. George Mason, Old Dominion and Virginia Commonwealth are ranked in the top 90 nationally in both polls. Also, those three teams are ranked in the Mid-Major Top 25 featured on the CBS Sportsline web site.

  E-mail this article

To learn how to subscribe to UDaily, click here.