Delle Donne brings UD win in her college debut

Elena Delle Donne opened her college career with a win, leading the Blue Hens to a 77-64 victory at St. Francis (PA) in their 2009-2010 season opener.

Elena Delle Donne opened her college career with a win, leading the Blue Hens to a 77-64 victory at St. Francis (PA) in their 2009-2010 season opener.

The 6-5 freshman, a former National high School player of the year, led all scorers with 19 points.  She added 7 rebounds, 5 assists, 2 blocked shots and a steal as Delaware, which led by 5  at halftime,  pulled away in the second half for the 13 point win in Loretto, PA.

Jocelyn Bailey and Corinthia Benison joined Delle Donne in double figures, scoring 15 and 10 points respectively.

Delle Donne got her feet wet with a blocked shot in the game’s first minute.  Her first basket, a put-back jumper in the paint 2 minutes and 40 seconds in, provided the Hens with their first points of the game.

Delle Donne wound up hitting just 5 of 14 of her shots (35 percent), including one of 3 three pointers, but was a perfect 8 for 8 from the foul line in 39 minutes of action.

Delaware used a 10-0 run midway to take control and pushed its lead to as many as 20 with just over three mnutes left.   The 77 points scored by UD is its highest output since a 79-58 win over VCU in March of 2007.

The Blue Hens (1-0) have won six consecutive season openers. They play the second of 7 in a row on the road to open the season Saturday at Princeton.

Check out WHYY’s coverage of Delle Donne’s return to basketball on our Delaware newsmagzine “First” here.