Photos Courtesy of Mark Campbell (Egerson) and Bob Burleigh (Courtney)

NEWARK, DE -- Junior Marc Egerson (top right) just missed posting the second triple-double in University of Delaware history with 24 points, 11 rebounds, and nine assists and senior Herb Courtney starred in his final Bob Carpenter Center appearance with 16 points and seven rebounds as the University of Delaware celebrated Senior Night with a 74-69 Colonial Athletic Association men’s basketball victory over Hofstra Wednesday night.

Egerson was one of four Blue Hen scorers in double figures as he posted his second straight double-double, hitting 6 of 10 shots from the field, burying two three-pointers, and hitting on 10 of 11 shots from the foul line to lead Delaware (13-15, 9-8 CAA) to its second straight victory.

Courtney (bottom right) added 16 points, seven rebounds, and three blocked shots and Alphonso Dawson and Brian Johnson each contributed 11 points apiece for the Blue Hens.

Hofstra (11-17, 7-10 CAA), which had a three-game win streak snapped, almost pulled off a miracle comeback as the Pride rallied from 10 points down with 1:21 left before just falling short.

Pride senior guard Antoine Agudio led the way with 24 points and became the all-time leading scorer in Hofstra history with 2,236 points, breaking the mark of 2,222 by Steve Nisenson in 1962-65. Agudio hit on 8 of 24 shots from the field and 8 of 9 free throws to post his 16th 20-point scoring effort of the season.

Freshman Charles Jenkins posted his 13th straight double figure scoring effort with 16 points while Nathaniel Lester came off the bench to add 12 points and Dane Johnson recorded 11 points and a team-high six rebounds.

“This was a very fitting send-off for our seniors,” said Delaware head coach Monté Ross, whose team features just three seniors in Courtney, Sam McMahon, and Henry Olawoye. “They deserve to go out with a win and we got one for them. If we can make shots, I’ll take our chances against anyone. We have shot the ball well the last two games and hopefully that will continue.”

Delaware, which will close out the regular season Saturday at Towson, converted 24 of 48 shots from the field and 7 of 20 attempts from beyond the arc. The Hens have now shot better than 50 percent from the field in consecutive games for just the second time this season.

The Blue Hens took a slim 27-25 lead at halftime and the game stayed close throughout the second half as the first seven minutes of the stanza featured four ties. Johnson’s three-pointer with 14:08 left to play broke the fourth tie and gave the Hens the lead for good at 42-39, but Delaware could never push the lead to more than seven points until the final minutes.

Delaware’s Edwin Santiago hit two free throws with 2:04 left to give the Hens their biggest lead at 69-56 and UD still led by 10 at 70-60 with 1:21 on a free throw by Courtney.

But the Pride stormed back and almost pulled out the win. Jenkins hit two driving layups in a span of nine seconds to cut the lead to 70-64 before Egerson drained two free throws for a 72-64 Delaware lead with 1:03 left.

Jenkins hit another layup with :57 left and the Pride took advantage of two missed free throws by Courtney when Lester nailed a three-pointer from the left corner with 47 seconds left to narrow the margin to 72-69.

After Hofstra called a 30-second timeout, Delaware ran the shot clock down and barely beat the buzzer when Santiago took a feed from Egerson and dunked with just 12 seconds remaining to up the lead to 74-69.

Agudio then missed a three-pointer and Dawson rebounded for Delaware to clinch the win for the Blue Hens, who have now clinched a .500 or better record in league play for the first time since the 2003-04 campaign.

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