The Delaware Blue Coats lost to the Capital City Go-Go on Monday, Dec. 9 by a final score of 115-114. The Coats couldn’t complete the back-to-back sweep against Capital City, and their five-game win streak came to an end as they surrendered a 16-point lead.

Throughout most of the game, the Blue Coats followed the lead of Darius Bazley and Marcus Bagley. Bazley continued his recent high-level play in the first quarter, simply being too big for Michael Foster Jr. to deal with down in the post. 

“He was huge tonight,” said head coach Mike Longabardi. “I wish we could have gotten him the ball a little bit more. You gotta give them [Go-Go] credit, they are a good team.”

Bagley on the other hand was able to thrive in all categories throughout the opening frame. He hit a three-pointer and also made a nice cut that allowed Jeff Dowtin Jr. to find him for an open dunk.

Also in the first quarter, the second basket of the game was scored by none other than the Sixers’ newest two-player Pete Nance, who played in his first game as a Blue Coat. The 24-year-old finished the game with 15 points and 7 rebounds. 

“He did a good job,” said Longabardi. “What he did was not easy, he just got off the plane. He came off the plane and had no practice, we had a film review. He’s been around, and he is a real pro.”

Overall, Nance was happy with how his first day with the team went.

“It was good getting here, playing with guys, learning everybody’s names,” said Nance. “I think it was a pretty good start that we can build off of.”

Despite his good start with Delaware, Nance did get into foul trouble, finishing with five.

“I think I played fine,” said Nance. “Got into some foul trouble, I think there were some bad calls.”

The second quarter was a back-and-forth battle that ultimately ended with Blue Coats extending their lead to ten heading into halftime. The Go-Go kept trying to get their offense going on the fast break, and was successful at times, even going on a 9-0 run using this strategy. The Coats responded with a timeout and began to outpace the Go-Go themselves as the quarter winded down.

The third quarter was more of the same, as the two teams were deadlocked, allowing the Blue Coats to enter the fourth still up by 10. Then, Delaware struggled out of the gate in the final frame.

“They had 7-0 fun to start in the fourth,” said Longabardi. “We had a hard time keeping them in front of us. We shot the three well throughout the game, we did not shoot as well.”

The fourth was the best quarter of the game defensively for the Go-Go.

“They made good adjustments defensively,” said Nance. “We were playing well and matchup hunting. They made good adjustments and it happened quickly. Next time we will know what to do.”

The game came down to the final three possessions. Delaware was down by two with only 21 seconds left when Dowtin Jr. hit a step-back three with a defender in his face to put the Coats up by one, 114-113.

This led to Jaylen Nowell, who led the game with 28 points, converting a layup on the other end which was the game-winning basket for Capital City. 

The Coats had one last chance, but a layup attempt by Dowtin Jr. was blocked by Jared Butler Jr.

The Blue Coats will be back in action on Friday, Dec. 13 when they host Raptors 905 at Chase Fieldhouse.

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