Delaware Blue Coats Jeff Dowtin attempts a shot against the West Chester Knicks, photo courtesy of Ben Fulton
WILMINGTON- The Blue Coats returned to Chase Fieldhouse this weekend after splitting a double-header out in Portland against the Remix. The Westchester Knicks came to town winless in 4 games of regular season play.
Game one was a fun, high scoring affair that saw the Blue Coats earn a 128-121 victory, as they led by a significant amount through most of the contest. Kenneth Lofton Jr. led the Coats in game 1 with 26 points, 11 rebounds and 5 assists. A few other standouts for the Blue Coats were Ricky Council (20 points), Terquavion Smith (18 points) and a pair of double-doubles from Darius Bazley (21 points, 11 rebounds, 5 assists) & Javonte Smart (19 points, 12 assists, 5 rebounds).
The Knicks had a historic night in the loss as former Belmont star Dylan Windler notched a G-League record THIRTY-THREE rebounds! That is not a typo. In fact, while tweeting out stats after each quarter of the game, I purposefully left out the gaudy rebounding stats for Windler because I thought it was a typo. Windler also led the team with 23 points. The record night paid dividends for Windler, as later that night he signed an official two-way deal with the Los Angeles Lakers.
The Knicks also got 20+ point nights from Jacob Toppin, 7-1 center Dmytro Skapintsev, and DaQuan Jeffries.
Game two saw both teams undermanned. Obviously, Windler had made his way to Los Angeles upon signing the two-way deal, but the Blue Coats were also down some star power as both Ricky Council & Terq Smith were called up to join the Sixers in Philly on Saturday night.
The Knicks jumped out to a big lead in the first quarter, 29-14 at one point. The Blue Coats fought back to eventually take a 79-78 lead in the third quarter, however the Knicks retook the lead and never looked back as they took a 118-108 road victory.
The Blue Coats needed players outside of the regular rotation to step up and contribute substantially if they were going to compete and they did get that on the night, particularly from guard Jared Brownridge. Brownridge, a rare elder statesman to the G-League at 29 years old, has been with the Blue Coats since 2017 and is a career 39% three-point shooter. I mention that because Brownridge would hit six of his first seven threes and finish with 18 points on the night off the bench. Lofton, the lone two-player available on Saturday night, would battle through a tough first quarter (2 points) to finish with 27 points, 9 rebounds and 4 assists to lead the way. Javonte Smart would add 25 points and 5 assists in the loss.
Delaware now sits in 7th place in the Eastern Conference with a 3-2 record and heads to College Park on Wednesday to take on the Skyhawks for a 7pm tip off.
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