Women’s basketball loses in CAA semifinal

After a thrilling overtime victory in the CAA tournament over No. 4 seed Drexel on Friday, No. 5 Delaware's season ended in a microcosm of its losses this year, a one point loss to Old Dominion.

For head coach Tina Martin, it was a bittersweet day.

"I've got kids with a lot of heart and their learning how to play in big-time games," Martin said in a statement. "Every regular season game was like you just saw out there. I'm very proud of my team."   

Preserving a lead seemed to be Delaware's Achilles' heel in the tournament. After losing to Old Dominion twice this season, 59-60, 52-54, the Hens were aggressive in the first half, gaining a 12-point lead at halftime.

Old Dominion fought back the entire second half though and took a 46-45 lead with 1:34 remaining in the game. After a minute that had two lead changes and two tied scores, ODU's Tia Lewis hit a jumper with 22 seconds left, putting the Monarchs ahead for good, 50-49.

Despite scoring all of Delaware's points in the second half, redshirt freshman star Elena Delle Donne missed a potential game-winning jump shot with four seconds left.

"If I had to do it again, I'd probably would've pulled up sooner so I was more on balance," Delle Donne said. "I still feel like I got a good look to the basket. I've made those shots before. It just didn't fall today."

Sophomore guard Kayla Miller said Delaware's defense was problematic in the second half.

"Our defense is what really hurt us in the second half," sophomore guard Kayla Miller said. "I know Elena had all of our offensive points but we needed to get stops in order to get ball offensively."

Delaware opened up the CAA tournament with a sound defeat of No. 12-seed George Mason on Thursday, 58-41. The Hens led by as many as 25 points against the Patriots.

In the quarterfinals, Delaware faced its tough rival Drexel. Delaware lost to Drexel Jan. 17 in double overtime at the Bob Carpenter Center. Less than two weeks later, the Hens fell to Drexel once again in overtime.

The playoff bout with Drexel was similar in intensity to the regular season contests but different in results. After losing an 11-point lead in the second half, Delaware rebounded in overtime to recapture the lead for good, winning 67-61.

Victory looked far away for the Hens at the beginning of overtime when Drexel took an early five-point lead. Tina Martin called a timeout with 4:19 left to shift the momentum of the game.

"I said, ‘I will sub all five of you out right here, right now if anyone even mopes for one second,'" Martin said. "I looked at them, and if looks could kill, those five kids looked at me like, ‘You sub us out and we're going to take you down right here coach.' I knew we had some fight left in us."

Elena Delle Donne, a potential candidate for NCAA Player of the Year, netted 30 points against Drexel and concurred with Martin on the effect of the timeout.

"When she said that it kind of woke us up,'" Delle Donne said. "I think her saying that put the fight back into us and then we took it out on Drexel."

After the timeout, Delaware scored 11 unanswered points on its way to victory, finally redeeming all the hard-fought losses against Drexel during the regular season.

"People were just clutch tonight and I feel like that's from all the experience we've had this entire season," Delle Donne said.

With a two-point lead with 11 seconds left in overtime, redshirt freshman Danielle Parker was fouled and hit both of her free throws, making it a two-possession lead. Junior guard Tesia Harris was the second leading scorer for the Hens against Drexel, netting 13 points, and in the regular season, she averaged 12.6 points per game.

Delaware had a solid season, finishing 21-11, 11-7 in conference play. Martin's squad only lost one conference game by double digits, and that was against Towson on Feb. 28 when Delle Donne was sidelined with a sprained ankle. Three of the team's conference losses went into overtime against the teams that were seeded higher than Delaware.

The Hens are returning 12 of their 14 players next season, including their entire starting lineup. Martin was very optimistic about the team's future.

"We wanted to be here one more day, and unfortunately we just came up short," Martin said. "We will be back. I can tell you this, we will be challenging for years to come for a CAA championship. My team will regroup."

Delaware looks to receive an invite to the Women's National Invitational Tournament this week.