WILMINGTON, NC – University of Delaware freshman point guard Brian Johnson (at right) scored a career-high 26 points and set a school record for minutes played in a season, but it wasn’t enough as the Blue Hens fell to host UNC Wilmington 75-66 in their regular season finale Saturday afternoon at Trask Coliseum.

Delaware, which finished the regular season with five straight losses and fell to 5-25 (3-15 Colonial Athletic Association), finished the season in 12th place in the CAA standings and will take on No. 5 seed Northeastern in the CAA tournament first round March 2 at 2:30 p.m. at the Richmond (VA) Coliseum. The Hens, who finished the season 0-9 in CAA road games, set a new school record for conference losses in a season.

UNC Wilmington (7-21, 4-14 CAA), the defending CAA champion, snapped a five-game losing streak and stayed out of last place in the CAA standings with the victory. Vladimir Kuljanin came off the bench to lead UNCW with 17 points (all in the second half) and 10 rebounds while Daniel Fountain added 14 points and Temi Soyebo added 13 points and matched a career-high with 10 assists.

Johnson, who was coming off a 17-point effort Wednesday night in a 70-61 loss to Northeastern, hit on 7 of 10 shots from the field, drained a career-high five three-pointers, and also pulled four rebounds in playing all 40 minutes of action. He surpassed his previous high of 25 points in a win over Hofstra Jan. 29 and set a new UD single season record for minutes played with 1,152, breaking the mark of 1,134 by John Gordon in 1998-99. Herb Courtney posted is 14th straight double-figure scoring effort with 16 points while Sam McMahon added 14 points and Henry Olawoye recorded eight points and a team-high eight rebounds.

Delaware, which had defeated the Seahawks 78-69 back on Feb. 7 in Newark, DE, fell to 1-5 all-time at Trask Coliseum and lost for the fifth straight time in Wilmington.

“I was very happy with our first half performance,” said Delaware rookie head coach Monté Ross, whose team trailed just 32-28 at the break. “But the stretch to start the second half put us in a hole we couldn’t get out of it. UNC Wilmington made some big shots when we went into a zone so my hat goes off to them. They did a great job of clogging the lane and we didn’t make some smart decisions when we penetrated.”

The Seahawks built a 24-18 lead with 8:17 left in the first half, but the Blue Hens battled back to score eight straight points, on two three-pointers by Johnson and a jumper by McMahon, and took the lead at 26-24 with 4:45 remaining. UNC Wilmington then scored eight straight points to go up 32-26 with 1:49 left and held a 32-28 advantage at the break.

UNC Wilmington pulled away to open the second half, scoring the first eight points over the first three minutes of the stanza - including back-to-back three pointers by Montez Downey - to take a 40-28 lead. The Seahawk lead then fluctuated between seven and 13 points for most of the game with UNCW taking a 60-47 lead with 5:40 left.

Delaware scored six straight points, capped by a dunk from Courtney, to pull to within 60-53 with 2:46 left and narrowed the deficit to 72-66 on a three-pointer by Johnson with 21 seconds remaining, but the Seahawks hit three free throws down the stretch to hang on for the win.

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