Newark, De. – On Tuesday night, the Bridgewater men’s basketball team was tied with the Division 1 Blue Hens of Delaware University. The tie lasted for 22 seconds before the Blue Hens took the lead for good, en route to a 97-51 victory.

The game was an exhibition for BC, while it will count as a real game for Delaware. Delaware moves to 1-0 on the season. The Blue Hens jumped out to a 7-0 lead early, and the Eagles would get no closer than down four points.

The Eagles were led in defeat by senior guards Chandler Murray and T.J. Turner with 10 points each. Murray also had four assists, three turnovers, a steal and a rebound. While Turner had three turnovers, two fouls, two rebounds and two assists. Senior forward Davrion Grier chipped in with nine points, three turnovers, three fouls, three rebounds, and two steals. The Eagles had 19 turnovers and 13 fouls, while shooting 32% from the field. The Blue Hens were led by sophomore forward Justyn Mutts with 23 points and 13 rebounds; while junior guard Ryan Allen kicked in with 21 points. Collin Goss (13), Aleks Novakovich (11), and Ebby Asamoah (10) were three of the five Blue Hens who scored in double figures. The Blue Hens shot 58.2% from the field, and won the rebound battle 44-25.

After Delaware made it 7-0, a three pointer by Kellen Hodge cut it to 7-3 Delaware. When Allen responded with a three of his own, Turner answered with another three to make it a 10-6 game. The Blue Hens then responded with two threes in a row, to make a double digit deficit. The Eagles would cut it to seven, but that would be as close as they could get the rest of the way. The Eagles only cut the deficit to single digits two other times in the game. At the half, the Blue Hens had more than they would need to win with a 55-26 lead. For the half, the Eagles shot 36% from the field, 40% from three point range, and 33% from the free throw line.

In the second half, the closest the Eagles would be was down 28, after a three from Turner made it 29-57 early on. The Blue Hens then went on a 33-8 run to take their biggest lead of the game, at 90-37 with 7:05 left. The Eagles sparked a bit of a rally, and closed the game on a 14-7 run.  However, it was too little, too late, as they fell 97-51.

The game was the first exhibition as head coach for Steve Enright, who takes over for former Eagles head coach Shawn Postiglione. Enright previously worked at BC from 2015-2018, spending one season as an assistant and two as an associate head coach. He left last year to take an assistant job at Division one  school – Virginia Military Institute.

The Eagles have one more exhibition game against a Division one foe next Tuesday night, when they travel to Radford, game time TBA. The Eagles will kick off the season on Saturday, Nov. 16th at 3 pm., when they play host to Montclair State in a game at Marymount University.