Game night: Delaware State

Keep your eye on Isaac Fleming tonight.

Fleming minced no words about what he expected to do against Delaware State, one of the few Division I teams from The First State (Fleming’s state) which is serendipitously is playing at the Stan Sheriff Center tonight.

The UH freshman should be back in his energy role off the bench after basically missing the last two games from a coach’s decision by Benjy Taylor.

Fleming knows most of the Hornets’ players.

“When I was a freshman (in high school), most of those guys were seniors and I was scoring double-doubles on them when I was a freshman and they were seniors,” Fleming said. “Nothing special.”

He’s dedicated the season to his maternal aunt Vicky, who recently died of cancer. Fleming said that was the reason for his off-court outburst during the Gulf Coast Showcase.

“It’s hard, it’s hard, at a time like this, me not being home,” he said. “But I’m just trying not to think about it as much … it’ll break me down. I’ll just play the rest of the season out for her and just make her proud. I know she’s watching me.”

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While the UH guards must keep tabs on Amere May, who scored 32 in a rare MEAC win over Wake Forest of the ACC, stopping 6-10 center Kendall Gray could be key. Gray nearly went triple-double against the Demon Deacons.

That task will first fall upon 6-7 forward Mike Thomas in UH’s first home game since Nov. 19 against Hawaii Hilo.

“I think it’ll be a good test,” Thomas said. “Get our lungs back and everything. We’re playing a fast team, so it’ll be good to be back in front of our fans.”

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Here’s a bonus quote from Taylor on the setting tonight:

“This team does pretty well in adverse situations. And we really don’t have an adverse situation right now. We’ve been in our own bed for a few days. We gotta come out hard (tonight). It’s been a while since we played here. We’re going to need a lot of energy in order to win the game.”