Delaware junior guard Nate Darling was named first-team All-CAA while fellow junior Kevin Anderson was selected to the third team as the league announced its all-conference honorees on Friday.
In his first season playing for the Blue Hens since transferring from UAB, Darling ranks third in the CAA and is 17th in the country in scoring at 21.1 points per game. The 6-foot-5 guard ranks sixth in UD history with 634 points, including 16 20-point games and four 30-point efforts.
Darling has led UD in scoring 21 times, and his 99 three-pointers made are a school single-season record. He alaso connected on 38 consecutive free throws, the second longest streak in program history.
Darling is the fifth Blue Hen to earn first team All-CAA accolades along with Harding Nana (2004-05, 2005-06), Marc Egerson (2008-09), Devon Saddler (2012-13, 2013-14) and Davon Usher (2013-14).
Anderson leads Delaware with 117 assists and 41 steals while ranking fourth with 11.6 points per game. He has reached double figures in 20 games, scored a career-high 32 points vs. UTSA, and hit the game-winning layup during UD’s dramatic 73-71 victory at Hofstra.
Fifth-seeded Delaware (11-7 CAA, 21-10 overall) will take on fourth-seeded Charleston in the CAA tournament quarterfinals on Sunday at 2:30 p.m. at the Entertainment & Sports Arena in Washington, D.C.
Hornets eye MEAC tourney
Eric Skeeters knows as well as anyone, anything can happen in March.
Delaware State’s second-year coach was an assistant on that famous UMBC squad which shocked Virginia and became the first No. 16 seed to beat a one seed in the NCAA Tournament.
So with the Hornets men headed into the MEAC Tournament as the eighth seed, Skeeters wants the team to think the tournament is wide open. After all, the Hornets have already beaten the MEAC’s top seed North Carolina Central earlier this season.
Skeeters has shared stories from his run at UMBC and from various other stops on his coaching career with the Hornets, to show how upsets can happen.
“I show these guys clips all the time like, ‘That could be you.’” Skeeters said. “But you have to bring it every time, every possession when you’re on the floor. That’s why I love the motto for this university — ‘It all matters.’”
The Hornets will begin their conference tournament at 6 p.m. on Tuesday in Norfolk, Va. against UMES. Delaware State is 1-1 against the Hawks this year with both teams winning on the road against one another.
The winner plays North Carolina Central on Wednesday at 6 p.m.
Delaware State’s women’s basketball team earned the sixth seed and get its conference tournament underway on Thursday at 2 p.m. against No. 3 seed Morgan State.
Notes
• Ian Robertson, a former Cape Henlopen standout, made the Old Dominion Athletic Conference All-Tournament team as Randolph-Macon won the conference title in men’s basketball last week. Robertson and Randolph-Macon played against Wesley College in the first round of the NCAA Division III Tournament on Friday night.
• Rosa’Lynn Burton, a Caesar Rodney grad, leads the Wilmington University softball team in batting average with a mark of .400 entering Friday. Sara Miller (Smyrna) is batting .308 for the Wildcats.
• Caesar Rodney product Jake Pangle has scored four goals in three games for the Bridgewater University lacrosse team.
• St. Thomas More grad Aniah Patterson averaged 5.2 points per game for the Chowan University women’s basketball team this season.
• Two Henlopen Conference products have earned weekly honors for the Chatham University men’s lacrosse team. Shane Gaglione (Milford) won the Presidents’ Athletic Conference Defensive Player of the Week while Jake Brown (Cape Henlopen) won the PAC Offensive Player of the Week for the second week of the season. For the season, Gaglione has 46 saves in four games and Brown has scored nine goals with two assists.
• Delaware will begin 15 sessions of spring football practice on Tuesday. The Hens will practice on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 2:45 p.m. and at 10:30 a.m. on Saturdays. The spring game is slated for April 18 at 3:30 p.m.