For the first time since March 30, the Delaware Blue Coats played in front of the home crowd at Chase Fieldhouse in Wilmington, Delaware. Despite a feisty battle, the fans weren’t given much to cheer about as the late-game heroics of Tyreke Key handed the Coats a season-opening, 116-115 loss against Raptors 905 on Saturday, Nov. 9.

Despite the tight final score, the Blue Coats put forth a miserable showing to close out the first half. Delaware led 27-24 at the end of the first quarter but got outscored 38-21 in the second to enter the break trailing 62-48. The Coats simply had trouble converting easy looks throughout the half; despite corralling 11 offensive rebounds, they scored just seven second-chance points and shot 30% on those opportunities.

“Two of my biggest pet peeves are don’t turn the ball over, which we were better at in the second half, and finish layups,” Head Coach Mike Longabardi said. “Because I know what happens when you don’t finish layups; it starts the fast-break for the other team.”

That trend continued throughout the second half, as Delaware totaled 26 offensive rebounds while scoring just 24 second-chance points, but they were able to roar back largely because of stellar play from Justin Edwards. After scoring 13 first-half points with ease, the first-year pro added 15 more in the second half en route to a game-high 28 points. In addition, the 20-year-old totaled 23 shots, nine more than any other player on the Coats.

“I thought every shot was gonna go in,” Edwards said. “That’s just my confidence, I’ve been working a lot going back-and-forth with both teams [Blue Coats and 76ers], so it felt good to be able to get out there and play.”

Although his high-volume outing looked seamless on the floor, neither Edwards nor Longabardi expects that to become the norm as the season goes on.

“I didn’t expect to shoot that many shots,” Edwards said. “I never really expect to shoot that many shots, but my team said I was rollin’ and they just kept getting me the ball.”

“We have an equal-opportunity type team,” Longabardi said. “We were further ahead offensively than defensively in training camp, and I still thought tonight we could’ve been better; we could’ve got way more cuts, we could’ve got some more easy looks. We gotta finish, we missed some layups, they blocked nine shots. Those points you can’t get back.”

Despite his high shot total, it wasn’t just the Kentucky product that stood out, as veteran Patrick McCaw contributed 18 points off the bench to go along with six rebounds and four steals. While Edwards led the charge, the Coats featured a balanced offensive attack with six players scoring in double figures, which was the spearhead of their second-half comeback.

“It’s a long game, it’s a game of runs,” Edwards said. “We all got a chip on our shoulder and we don’t like losing, so that’s really why we came out and played the way we played in the second half.”

Down by as many as 16, it was a game of ups and downs for the Coats, but in the end, the aforementioned Key drilled a fadeaway, off-balanced three-pointer with 0.2 seconds remaining, and as a result, Delaware dropped their season-opener for the third consecutive season. However, Longabardi remains confident in his team and believes they will bounce back, perhaps as early as their next game on Monday, Nov. 11 when they welcome the Maine Celtics to Chase Fieldhouse.

“This is the G League, every game is going to be back-and-forth,” Longabardi said. “No lead is ever secure. We came back, we competed, but obviously we fell short. It’s a good learning lesson.”

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