The Delaware Blue Coats (6-11) losing skid continued on Tuesday, Feb. 4 in a rematch against the Osceola Magic (8-6). The two teams squared off on Sunday, with the Magic handing the Coats their eighth loss in nine games by a score of 113-104. During that game, the Blue Coats struggled to shoot from the field, knocking down just 36 percent of their shots in the losing effort.

Fast forward to Tuesday and it was like deja vu, but worse, as the Coats lost 115-98. Delaware shot just 35.8 percent from the field (35-94) and 13-50 from beyond the three-point line, but the biggest concern of the day came from within the paint. Delaware missed several point-blank layups that could have kept the game close during the early stages and finished just 16 of 36 from shots in the paint. Thierry Darlan was one of the many culprits, as he entered the locker room at halftime 0-5 from the field, with four of those misses being from inside the restricted area.

“[Osceola’s] size is effective,” head coach Mike Longabardi said. “We did get a lot of threes though, so we were kicking it out which is what we wanted. We’re just struggling to shoot right now, that’s the bottom line.”

Things didn’t spiral out of control for Delaware until the seven-minute mark in the second quarter though. Earlier in the game, the Blue Coats managed to tie it up at 35, and now, the score was 42-41 in favor of the Magic, but a 22-6 run essentially iced any chance that Delaware had, as they entered the half trailing 64-47, with Jaylen Martin leading the way with just nine points on 4-10 shooting.

On the other hand, Magic forward Ethan Thompson had nine points in the 8:24 he played during the first quarter. He entered the half with a game-high 16 points and finished with 21.

Things only got worse for Delaware during the third quarter, as that 17-point deficit snowballed into a 31-point deficit in the blink of an eye. It took the Blue Coats nearly three minutes to record their first basket, which came after Jared Brownridge hit a step-back midrange jumper to end the drought. However, Delaware’s offense continued to struggle and it started the snowball into their transition defense, as the Blue Coats were outscored 20-8 in the first six minutes of the third.

Former Blue Coat Javonte Smart was making his mark this quarter, as he shot 5-7 for 11 points and had some highlight plays like an alley-oop assist to Jalen Slawson, who threw it down with authority.

Despite the score, the team’s energy was still high, and they managed to string together a few buckets and stops to trim the margin. The driving force of the team’s energy was none other than Darlan, who was showing emotion after every bucket and stop that the Blue Coats had.

“I got a lot of energy in me,” Darlan said. “I just try to always cheer for my teammates and bring the energy to bring them up too.”

Now with a date against the 9-9 Maine Celtics on Thursday, Feb. 6, the team will look to re-find their shooting rhythm to try and get out of the slump.

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