The University of Delaware women’s basketball team kept the good times rolling on Thursday night in Newark.  The Hens opened CAA play by holding George Mason to a paltry 27 points in a lopsided 35-point victory.  It was the fewest points allowed by a Delaware team since 1973.  George Mason shot just 17 percent from the field and finished the game with eight field goals total.  That meant the Patriots averaged just a single made shot every five minutes on Thursday.

In other words, UD picked up right where it left off defensively.

It is a trend that began in New Hampshire during the Dartmouth Holiday Tournament, when the Hens held Villanova to just 11 second-half points and Duquesne to only 12 points in the first half a night later.  In its last four games overall, Delaware has now held the Dukes, Cats, Patriots and St. John’s to a combined 61-of-229 shooting from the field.  That’s a total of 27 percent.

Not surprisingly, the Hens have won all four of those contests and are riding a five-game winning streak overall.  The team is as healthy as it has been all season long with Elena Delle Donne rounding back into her old form and the flu that had passed through the team for weeks, finally a distant memory.

Even the bench is beginning to fill out, with sophomore Stephanie Leon and freshman Courtni Green consistently providing Delaware with rebounding and outside shooting when called upon in the last several weeks.

After going 9-3, despite playing six games without Delle Donne and facing a non-confernece schedule that featured two Big East opponents, three games against Atlantic 10 competition and five contests versus teams that qualified for last season’s NCAA Tournament, the Hens have to feel like facing the CAA is a relative walk in the park.

Remember, Delaware did not lose a single game against league-competition a season ago.  And the way UD played in its CAA opener on Thursday,, it doesn’t look like a team that is planning on ruining that streak anytime soon.