DOVER, Del. - In her first game wearing a Delaware State University uniform, redshirt freshman Tierra Hawkins (Clinton, Md.) recorded a double double of 21 points and 10 rebounds as the Lady Hornets cruised by Wilmington University, 80-32, in their season-opener Saturday afternoon at Memorial Hall.

"We knew that Tierra would be an intricate part of trying to reshape this basketball team back to winning ways," commented DSU head coach Ed Davis.  "She's such an aggressive player and doesn't have a problem putting up shots and finishing.  For us to score 80 points this early in the year, no matter who the opponent is, is pretty good and means that we're finishing easier shots than what we didn't do last year as a team."

Hawkins finished the day on 9-of-20 shooting and 3-for-6 from the charity stripe in addition to three blocks, two assists and two steals in 28 minutes of play.

Joining Hawkins in double digits were sophomore Deanna Harmon (Owings Mills, Md.), with 20 points on 8-of-12 shooting and 2-for-3 from behind the arc, and redshirt sophomore Uchechi Ahaiwe (Riverdale, Md.) with 10 points and eight rebounds. 

Sophomore Tasia Bristow (Baltimore, Md.) chipped in eight points, seven steals and five assists in the victory.

All 10 players on DSU's active roster saw playing time and scored at least two points.

"Tasia did a lot of good things for us," said Davis.  "There was a potential for her to score double figures, but she finished with seven steals and five assists.  That's a great way for her to start her season."

Davis continued, "Overall, I thought we played collectively as a group very well. There were different times we went with different lineups and had to do different things and their intensity levels really began to step up.  These kids want to win and they're going to play hard, win or lose."

The Wildcats scored first on the afternoon with a 3-pointer from Candace DeShields and kept things close through the first 10-plus minutes of the game.  The Lady Hornets allowed WU to score just five points in the remainder of the half, outscoring the Wildcats, 17-5, going into halftime up by a score of 36-20.

A steal from freshman Keyanna Tate (Beltsville, Md.) turned freshman Alexis Thornton's (El Paso, Texas) first points of her collegiate career off of a jumper from the corner.  A Tianna Wagner foul threw Thornton into an acrobatic somersault and a three-point play to give DSU a 53-26 lead with 11:19 left in the game.

Seconds later, Tate found her first points of her career off of a Bristow steal and then foul from Wilmington's Joune Reed.  Tate drained her free throws and made a layup less than a minute later to go up, 57-26.

Coming out of the last media timeout of the game, freshman Chelsea Dukes (Baltimore, Md.) sank a 3-pointer to give Del State a 73-31 lead.  The Lady Hornets kept the pressure up through the final minutes as they scored five points in the final 1:30.

The Lady Hornets rewrote numerous historical statistical categories as they collected over 50 rebounds (51) for the first time since 2008 when they tallied 56 against Cheyney.  Additionally, they recorded 22 steals, their most since Jan. 8, 2011 when they had 17 against North Carolina Central.  The last time Del State won by more than 40 points was in 2009 when they posted a score of 84-28 over Lincoln (Pa.) and the last time they allowed less than 40 points was on Jan. 9, 2010 in a 57-39 win over Winston-Salem State.

"As a coach, I'm obviously pleased with us winning our first game," stated Davis.  "I won't let their heads get big as I will find flaws when I watch the game film.  Right now I want them to feel good about their win for a bit and then we have to get back to working hard for our next game."

The Wildcats were lead in scoring by Cari Callaway and Erin Moore, each contributing five points.  Courtney Coleman and Amanda Walters each added three rebounds in the effort.

Del State held Wilmington to just 19 percent shooting on the night (8-for-42) while shooting 44.1 percent themselves (30-for-68).

The Lady Hornets continue a mini-homestand to start the season as they host in-town rival, Wesley College, at 6 p.m. Tuesday at Memorial Hall.

---DSU WBB---