NEWARK, Del. — On Sunday, the Bob Carpenter Center, where sixth-seeded Delaware matched up against 11-seed West Virginia, was deafeningly loud.
When No. 3 seed North Carolina takes on Delaware in the second round of the NCAA women’s basketball tournament tonight, the fans in that arena — Delaware’s home court — promise nothing short of pandemonium.
The fervor surrounding the Blue Hens during the past four years has centered on Delaware’s dynamic hybrid forward/guard Elena Delle Donne. The crowd will know her game tonight against the Tar Heels could be her last.
A former Connecticut recruit and the top player in the nation out of high school, Delle Donne transferred home to Delaware during her freshman year, where she has gone on to lead the Blue Hens into the national spotlight. This season, she is averaging 25.5 points per game, and dropped 33 points on the Mountaineers in the first round.
“Everybody’s been asking us what we’re going to do to stop her or whatever,” UNC coach Sylvia Hatchell said, shaking her head. “I think maybe we’ll just leave her open, since everybody else has tried to guard her. That’s the only strategy no one’s used on her yet.”
UNC’s 6-foot-6 Waltiea Rolle is tall enough to keep up with the 6-foot-5 Delle Donne in the post, but the All-American’s athleticism and savvy for the game make her a threat anywhere on the court.
She shoots at a 92 percent clip from the foul line, hits 47.6 percent from beyond the arc, pulls down more than eight rebounds per game, and has blocked 67 shots this season.
Hatchell mentioned that her team, as it has all season, would simply try to use a variety of defensive schemes during the course of the game to keep Delle Donne from finding a groove.
But the rest of the Delaware team is similarly solid — the Blue Hens turned the ball over just nine times on Sunday against West Virginia. North Carolina gave the ball up 20 times against Albany.
