The Delaware Blue Coats took care of the Maine Celtics at the Chase Fieldhouse in Wilmington with inspired performances from Jeff Dowtin Jr. and Darius Bazley leading the way. The Blue Coats had six players, including all starters, score in double-figures in a well-balanced offensive attack to offset their 19 team turnovers and come away with the victory.
Every player involved in starting the game looked like they still needed to recover from their Thanksgiving feast food comas from a couple of nights prior. To say both teams came out disjointed would be an understatement. Drives to the paint with no real course of direction, sloppy passing, and weak rebounding were pain points for the home team early on, totaling 4 turnovers in the first five minutes of the game.
The Maine Celtics took those turnovers and cashed them into points. And when they were not doing that, they were taking three-point shots and cashing them into points too. Jordan Schacel and Donald Carey Jr led the way for Maine, combining for five makes from distance in the quarter. The Celtics, true to their NBA affiliate Boston Celtics, doubled up the Blue Coat’s three-point attempts and makes in the quarter.
When asked about the Blue Coats adjustments to guarding Schakel and the three-point line following the opening quarter, head coach Mike Longabardi said, “That’s what he (Schakel does). I was really upset because I felt like all of his threes were preventable, like in transition and just not getting matched up to him. So we got to be more conscious; he’s a dead-eye shooter, and hopefully, the more we play and the more we get used to each other, those mistakes will be eliminated.”
If it were not for some timely buckets from Judah Mintz and Aminu Mohammed and some regression to the mean on the early turnover luck, the Blue Coats would have been down by much more than 3 points entering the second quarter. A buzzer-beating 3-pointer from the Celtic’s rookie, Tristan Enaruna, kept it from being a tie.
The first half was a real test of patience for the Blue Coats. Every time they looked like they were going to tie it up, the Celtics would take a multiple-possession lead. And every time the Celtics looked like they were going to finally pull away with it, the Blue Coats had an answer, keeping the score just close enough to keep the effort and intensity levels high.
Tristan Enaruna was very impressive in the first half for the Celtics, although the plus-minus says otherwise. He picked up right where he left off at the end of the first by nailing another three-pointer to start the second. He would end the first half shooting 5/6 from the floor for 12 points, but the Maine Celtics were outscored by 17 points when he was on the court.
The Blue Coats really started to take off when Jeff Dowtin Jr reentered the game early in the second quarter. Dowtin scored 8 points in the quarter, and the Blue Coats outscored the Celtics by 15 points over that time frame. He hit a 3 in isolation after showcasing some impressive dribble skills and flashed his craftiness in the lane by finishing multiple times over taller defenders. His second-quarter efforts changed the entire outlook of the game.
Judah Mintz continues to impress as a do-it-all utility man for the Blue Coats. Whether he is starting or coming off the bench, his energy levels are contagious, and he constantly finds himself in the correct positions to make winning basketball plays. Isaiah Mobley contributed 9 points and 3 rebounds during the second frame as well, and the Blue Coats thoroughly won the minutes he and Mintz were on the floor. The home team rode that second-quarter wave to a double-digit halftime lead and never looked back.
Marcus Bagley came out of the half determined to keep the lead his team had fought so hard to build. Bagley hit two shots from behind the arch in the opening minutes of the third quarter and was flying around frenetically without the ball, trying to make something happen for the Blue Coats. His hustle was more noticeable than anybody else’s on the court.
The Blue Coats were able to maintain a comfortable lead heading into the fourth quarter thanks to Jordan Schakel trying to play hero ball and completely wiping away the contributions of Anton Watson. Watson, another rookie, had a putback off of an offensive rebound and hit a couple of long-range shots in the quarter to allow the Celtics to momentarily climb back into it. But it was Schakel’s onslaught of poor shots and ensuing misses that did the Celtics in, shooting only 1/7 from deep in the quarter.
Jarron Cumberland and JD Davison came out trading barbs to start the fourth quarter. Davison matched Cumberland’s consecutive buckets with a very deep, shot clock-beating three-pointer. Davison felt the hot hand after that, depositing a couple of tough jump shots from the post. Jeff Dowtin Jr would soon replace Cumberland as Davison’s shot trading partner, with every possession seemingly ending in a bucket for both of them. Dowtin scored 9 points and Davison scored 14 points just in the fourth quarter alone.
On his individual matchup down the stretch with Davison, Dowtin Jr said, “You know I think it is just two great point guards just competing on the court. He was able to get downhill and kind of make open drives. We were just trying to put extra bodies in front of him and on my end I was just trying to be aggressive, trying to put the team on my back so we can come out with the win. Keep being aggressive, keep getting downhill, keep finishing at the rim.”
But for every great play and basket scored by Davison, the Blue Coats had an answer as a team. Key plays on offense from Marcus Bagley, a ferocious block from Darius Bazley, and clutch free throws from Judah Mintz all helped fortify what Dowtin had built.
When push came to shove, and only holding a 3-point lead, the Blue Coats defense locked down. Jeff Dowtin Jr would have the last laugh on JD Davison, blocking his shot from the top of the arch leading to a shot clock violation that effectively ended the game.
The story of this game cannot be told with Darius Bazley. His tempo and composure were necessary pacesetters for the home team. He would end the game with 24 points, 15 rebounds, and 2 blocks- icing the game for the Blue Coats at the line en route to a final score of 118-110.
Up next for the Blue Coats
Their next matchup is on the road against the Brooklyn Nets’ affiliate, Long Island Nets.
