The Delaware Blue Coats faced off against the Windy City Bulls for the second night in a row from the Chase Fieldhouse in Wilmington, DE, by a score of 115-110. Delaware got smacked in the mouth early and was never able to truly recover as they failed to find the momentum from last night’s victory.
The Bulls came out of the gate looking like they had the beat on Delaware from tipoff. The familiarity should have been there as these teams faced off against one another the night before, with the home team, Blue Coats, waltzing to a 19-point victory. Just 24 hours later, Delaware appeared as though they had never seen this team before.
When asked about the coaching staff’s message to the team when playing an opponent on consecutive nights, Blue Coats head coach Mike Longabardi said, “I mean, it’s hard. It’s human nature. You try to tell them that if you’re in their shoes, they just lost by 20 points. They are going to have some pride and competitiveness and their coach does a really good job. They came out ready to play and they beat us, you got to tip your hats to them.”
The Bulls were not going to let Jeff Dowtin Jr. get going early, and he struggled mightily in the opening stretch of the game. Bulls’ forward Marcus Domask did a very good job of containing Dowtin on the perimeter and not allowing him to penetrate to his favorite spots. When he was able to get a shot off, he got stuffed at the rim twice.
E.J. Liddell and Ben Coupet Jr had their fingerprints all over the early portions of this game. Liddell had three blocks in the opening frame, displaying very impressive verticality that clearly deterred the Blue Coats from being aggressive on the interior. He finished the first quarter with a tally in every major box score statistic and a ferocious dunk in transition that energized the Bulls’ bench. Coupet Jr had seven points, three rebounds, and a vicious poster dunk of his own over Aminu Mohammed. Windy City ended the first with a double-digit lead.
The beginning of the second quarter was much more kind to Delaware. They scored more points in the first five and a half minutes than they did in the entire first quarter. Justin Edwards, who was invisible to start the game and not nearly as assertive as he needed to be, finally found his stroke and hit two crucial three-pointers to spur on the comeback. The Blue Coats were able to pull within three points before the Bulls went on their run to end the half.
Villanova legend Ryan Arcidiacono seemed excited to be playing so close to home for a few days following the holidays. His trademark hustle was felt all over the court. He was the first man to every loose ball and kept his head on a swivel in transition on his way to nine points and two assists in the first half. His perimeter defense was also a direct cause of the Blue Coats shooting an abhorrent 28.6 percent from three-point range in the first half. Arch’s Bulls doubled up the Blue Coats in points in the paint, more than tripled them in second-chance points, quintupled them in fast break points, and took a 55-46 lead into the break.
The second half began with both teams mirroring each other’s movements to the tee. Isaiah Mobley had a quick seven points but Marcus Domask had a quick six of his own. Jeff Dowtin Jr. and Ryan Arcidiacono both scored baskets from inside and outside the arc. Patrick McCaw and E.J. Liddell both got loose for buckets in transition. Halfway through the third quarter, Delaware was right back where they started when they came out of the locker rooms.
The Blue Coats have Isaiah Mobley alone to thank for keeping them within striking distance entering the final quarter. Mobley dropped 14 points in his third-quarter stint to help keep Delaware afloat. When it was time for him to sub out, Marcus Bagley, Judah Mintz, and Jarron Cumberland were there to keep the momentum going. The Blue Coats were able to cut their deficit to just 2 points heading into the fourth quarter.
With Delaware now able to smell blood and Windy City doing all they could to stop taking on water, the game turned into an utter rock fight. The physicality turned up a notch on defense, and in turn, the fluidity turned down a notch on offense. With neither team willing to give an inch, Jarron Cumberland and Adama Sanobo even found themselves having to be separated by teammates after the whistle.
At the halfway point of the quarter, the three-point barrage started for the Bulls. Alex Schumacher hit two, Jordan Hall and Ben Coupet Jr each hit one, and Marcus Domask converted an and-one for three points the old-fashioned way. Dowtin hit a couple of long-range shots of his own, but it was not enough to keep pace with Windy City. The clock became a quick enemy of the Blue Coats, who began pressing to match the Bulls shot for shot down the stretch. Domask took advantage of the Blue Coats’ intermittent sloppiness, ultimately scoring nine points in the final frame that would prove to be enough to put the game out of reach.
When asked about the lack of composure in the final few minutes, Isaiah Mobley said, “You got to give them credit; they hit some late shots that they didn’t hit last game or early throughout this game. We got to be a little bit better, and there are some things we can clean up, so we just got to do that over this short break and then get back to it on Monday.”
Now in the regular season portion of the schedule, the two-game split with the Bulls brings the Blue Coats’ record to 1-1. Their next game is at home on December 30 against the Long Island Nets.
