Delaware's Historic Run Continues with 100-78 Victory over William & Mary
Dylan Smith
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HIGHLIGHTS | PRESS CONFERENCE – DELAWARE | PRESS CONFERENCE – WILLIAM & MARY
WASHINGTON, D.C. – Behind a tournament-record 18 three-pointers, 12th-seeded Delaware blitzed No. 4 William & Mary, 100-78, in the quarterfinals of the Jersey Mike’s CAA Men’s Basketball Championship on Sunday afternoon.
The Blue Hens (15-19) became the first No. 12 seed to ever advance to the tournament semifinals, where they will meet top-seeded Towson at 6 p.m. on Monday. William & Mary slipped to 17-15.
Senior forward John Camden led the way for Delaware, scoring a career-high 36 points and tying a tournament record for threes in a game with a sizzling 8-for-10 effort from beyond the arc. All five Blue Hens’ starters tallied double figures with Erik Timko netting 13 points and Izaiah Pasha adding 12 points and eight assists. It was only the fifth time in tournament history that a team reached the 100-point plateau and the first by Delaware.
William & Mary got a team-high 16 points from Keller Boothby, while Gabe Dorsey and Matteus Case chipped in 13 points apiece. Boothby and Dorsey each hit four treys.
The two teams combined for 20 made three-pointers in a fast-paced first half that featured nine lead changes and eight ties. A Cavan Reilly triple put Delaware up 21-18 before William & Mary went on a 9-0 run over a 57-second span as consecutive treys from Isaiah Mbeng, Boothby and Gabe Dorsey gave the Tribe its largest lead, 27-21 with 10:33 left in the half.
The Blue Hens showed off their long-range prowess, stringing together five threes over a four-minute stretch. Camden nailed three of them, with the last giving UD a 37-35 edge with 5:57 on the clock. At that point, the Blue Hens were 10-of-12 from beyond the arc.
Behind six points down the stretch from Kyle Pulliam, W&M took a 49-47 lead into halftime. The Blue Hens shot 53.1% from the floor, including 12-of-20 from deep, over the opening 20 minutes while the Tribe hit 8-of-18 from three.
W&M took its largest lead, 54-47, on a Boothby three, but Delaware responded with a 13-1 run capped by five straight points from Camden to go up 60-55 with 16:07 remaining. Up by six with under 11 minutes left, the Blue Hens put together a 10-1 surge capped by Camden’s record-tying eighth triple to grab a commanding 79-64 lead with 8:04 to go.
The Tribe trimmed the deficit to nine, but Delaware reeled off 11 unanswered points with Pasha finishing the run with a fast break dunk to put the game away.
Delaware shot 55% from the floor for the game and went 18-of-29 (62.1%) from three. William & Mary was 11-of-34 (32.4%) from deep as the two teams set a tournament record with 29 combined threes.