By By Ed Morrone

In an early season filled with personal struggle, Aurimas Kieza finally found some good luck right from the opening tip.

Senior forward Adrian Uter deflected the ball right to Kieza, who raced down the court for a fast break dunk. Kieza scored 13 of his 17 points in the first half, helping to lead the Pride to a 79-65 conference opening win against the University of Delaware. Antoine Agudio matched a career-high with 22 points, Loren Stokes notched 16 and Adrian Uter added nine points and 11 rebounds as the Pride (4-2, 1-1 Colonial Athletic Association) cruised to a home win over its CAA rival.

"The beginning of the season I was shooting a lot of three's, so the last few games I've tried to take it inside and get some offensive rebounds," Kieza said. "I think it's pretty simple because of the talent our guards have. They make my job easier."

The Pride jumped out to an early 18-4 lead and smothered the Blue Hens (2-5, 0-2) whenever it appeared they were about to make a run. It was a total team effort, but the most encouraging sign was the play of Kieza. The senior forward, who head coach Tom Pecora calls "crucial to the team's success," had been mired in an early-season slump before finally getting the monkey off his back. He scored from the inside and from the perimeter and also grabbed nine rebounds in the process.

"Aurimas has just really committed himself to doing the little things," Pecora said. "He's struggled shooting the ball, but we all know he's going to go on a streak soon. He's defending and rebounding the ball, especially in traffic and doing things he needs to do."

The Blue & Gold, fueled by an energetic and loud student section at Hofstra Arena, took a 43-25 lead into halftime, holding the Hens to just 33.3 percent shooting.

Delaware, however, wouldn't lie down easy. The Hens came out of the locker room and quickly narrowed the deficit to eight. But unfortunately for them, the momentum ended as soon as it started when Agudio was fouled on a three-point attempt from the right corner. To Delaware's chagrin, the shot somehow went in despite Agudio falling backward onto the floor in front of the Pride bench, ending any chances of a comeback. Agudio finished the rare four-point play, putting the Pride on cruise control thereafter.

"The first three I got hit below the belt," Agudio said. "So the next time I caught the ball I knew I'd get hit again. When I caught it, I let it go and he hit me and it went down. It was a turning point that allowed us to get focused again."

A key to the Pride victory was the ineffectiveness of Delaware leading scorer Harding Nana. Nana, who came into the contest first and second in the CAA in scoring and rebounding, respectively, never really found his groove. He scored 20 points and grabbed seven rebounds, but the majority of his points came in bunches.

"The game plan from the beginning was to slow him down, be aggressive, knock the ball out when he puts it on the ground and throw bodies at him," Uter said. "I think we did that."

"It was a total team effort," Kieza added.

It was unclear coming into the game how sharp the Pride would be. After a Tuesday come-from-behind win over St. John's, the team looked flat in a 69-55 win over winless Binghamton. However, any worries were washed away quickly as the Pride played its most consistent game yet in the young season.

The team will have to find a way to stay sharp until the New Year, playing four straight non-conference games to close out 2005 after last night's 87-64 loss at Virginia Commonwealth. The conference season will resume in January and carry through the following months until the CAA Tournament, which will be held March 3-6 in Richmond, Va.