After a tightly-contested first half, Delaware kept its poise while Drexel did not. Turnovers and foul shooting made the difference as the Blue Hens win, 60-51. They’ll face UNC-Wilmingon tomorrow at 6 p.m. Delaware’s Herb Courtney left the court with an injury with two minutes to play, returned, and fouled out of the game. The Blue Hens were led by Marc Egerson’s 15 points. Courtney had 14, and Alphonso Dawson had 13.

Postgame comments:

Delaware:

Coach Monte Ross: Anytime you get an opportunity to play a rivalry game in the tournament, it’s never easy. I thought Bruiser has done a tremendous job with those guys, and my hat goes off to them. I thought it was a very hard-fought game between two rivals, and we were very fortunate to make plays at the end. I thought our defense was spectacular. We wanted to slow down Frank Elegar, who really hurt us in the games earlier this season.

I think you do get a little tighter when you get to this point in the season, and it’s going to take a little while to get adjusted. We came over here and shot twice, but nothing prepares you for those game conditions.

I give Jim a lot of advice. I don’t know if he always listens to me. (laughs) When you’re playing against a player like Frank Elegar you can’t stop him, you just try to slow him down. I thought Jim did an excellent job in the second half of holding him to two points.

Marc Egerson was in a boot from practice yesterday until gametime today. But its that time of year, he sucked it up, and I don’t think anybody could tell he was injured. Adrenaline can get you through lots of things.

The last five minutes of practice Thursday he tweaked it. He knew something was wrong, so he left practice. We put him in a boot right away to keep him off it. He didn’t do any shooting today, didn’t do the walkthrough, but I thought he played like nothing happened.

Guard Marc Egerson:We just wanted to stay confident and try to make a couple plays at the end. Jim came up with a huge block, he made his free throws and I made my free throws. Those were big.

Everybody was thinking [it would be close]. Every night is a dogfight. We just tried to stay confident and keep making plays.

Forward Jim Ledsome: The second time we played them at Delaware I had a block at the end of the game. He’s got a great right-hand hook, and its tough to block with his length, but I got my timing right. It turned out to be a big play for us.

Drexel:

Coach Bruiser Flint:We missed 11 foul shots, and they made a lot of baskets on loose balls. And we made 11 of 22 foul shots. That sums it up right there. You’ve got to do the little things sometimes.

We made them take some tough shots, and they came up with the rebounds. We had been playing good defense, we just hurt ourselves by not coming up with the rebounds.

Center Frank Elegar: They made adjustments [in the second half]. I was trying to get it out to run the offense, but it didn’t happen.

Forward Randy Ovenke: It’s been a tough season for us. A lot of frustration and disappointment. But I blame it on us. We didn’t come ready at times, and these are the results.

Posted by Michael Phillips in • College Sports
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