Shades of 48 is a William and Mary sports blog started by current Flat Hat Online editor and former Sports editor Jared Foretek along with former Sports editor and Editor-in-chief Mike Barnes ’13. In conjunction with Shades of 48, The Flat Hat will be republishing the blog’s work here.
Written by Jared Foretek
With 12:13 remaining in William & Mary’s 89-72 loss to Delaware Wednesday night, Kaplan Arena was alive. The 3,112 that braved the snowy roads had just watched as freshman guard Daniel Dixon drained a 3 pointer, cutting the Delaware lead to 9, down from 24 late in the first.
And then, as was all to typical, Delaware’s Devon Saddler brought the ball calmly up the court, got into the lane and hit a tough shot over Dixon, pushing UD’s lead back into double digits. Such was the story of Wednesday night. Even when the Tribe found some semblance of a shooting touch, Delaware was too hard to stop.
The Blue Hens put four in double-figures, starting with Davon Usher, who knocked down open threes and hard inside looks to finish with 28 on 9-15 shooting. Then there was Carl Baptiste, the 6-9, 260 pound beast that had his way on both ends with senior center Tim Rusthoven and his backup, sophomore Sean Sheldon. Baptiste scored 23 on 9-11 shooting. And then there was Saddler, who took on the primary ball-handling role with UD’s starting point guard, Jarvis Threatt, suspended. Saddler controlled the tempo, hit big shots (19 points), found open men (7 assists), and used his strength to pull in rebounds (game-high 7).
