BOX SCORE NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. – Justin Exum (Brooklyn, N.Y./Xaverian) became the 33rd student-athlete in program history to net 1,000 career points as the University of New Haven men’s basketball team defeated host Merrimack, 65-57, on Saturday afternoon. Jeffery Adkins (Piscataway, N.J./Piscataway) matched a career high with 18 points in the Chargers’ seventh consecutive victory.
 
Exum is the first Charger to score 1,000 career points since Cassius Chaney (2006-10), who ranks sixth all-time in program annals with 1,893 career tallies. Gary Liberatore (1962-66) is the Chargers’ all-time leading scorer with 3,176 points at New Haven, the most career points in the history of collegiate basketball in New England.
 
With their seventh straight win, the Chargers improve to 8-5 on the season and 5-4 in Northeast-10 action. Merrimack drops to 6-8 overall with a 3-6 NE-10 mark.
 
Adkins’ 18 points led all scorers and came in addition to five rebounds and a team-best four assists. Exum’s 17 points were fueled by four three-pointers. Also netting double figures was Eric Anderson (Newark, N.J./Newark Tech), who recorded his eighth double-double of the season and his third straight with 13 points and 11 rebounds. Ashanti DePass (Baldwin, N.Y./Baldwin), making his first career start, matched his season best with 10 points and hauled in a personal career-high five rebounds. Cyrus James (Manchester, Conn./Howell Cheney Tech) rounded out the scoring with seven points.
 
The Chargers were edged on the boards, 40-38, and each team committed 14 turnovers. Both clubs had 32 points in the paint and Merrimack’s Troy Hammel accounted for the contest’s seven bench points.
 
Defensively, Anderson had four blocked shots. The sophomore, who entered the afternoon ranked fourth in the Northeast-10 in rejections, notched his final two swats on consecutive Merrimack shot attempts in the final minute of action to help ice the victory.
 
Mike Clifford led the Warriors with 16 points and 13 rebounds, though the NE-10’s leader in field goal percentage at over 60 percent was limited to a 5-for-12 day from the floor.
 
Exum netted 11 points in the first half – ending the period with exactly 1,000 for his career – as the Chargers opened up a six-point halftime lead. New Haven led wire-to-wire in the opening frame and widened the margin as large as 15 points, but the home team scored the final five points before the intermission to head to the locker room facing just a 32-26 deficit.
 
The second half featured two ties and four lead changes – all in a span of under three minutes. The final shift in momentum came at the 10:19 mark, when Adkins converted two free throws to stake the Chargers to a 46-45 lead that they would not relinquish. The pair at the stripe also started New Haven on a 7-2 run – capped by an Anderson three-point play – to reclaim a two-possession lead. The Warriors would continue to put points on the board, but New Haven matched the hosts to maintain an advantage. A perfect 8-for-8 showing at the foul line over the final 4:11 closed out the 65-57 road victory.
 
New Haven continues its Northeast-10 road swing at No. 14 Franklin Pierce on Tuesday, Jan. 15 before returning to Charger Gymnasium to meet Southern New Hampshire next Saturday, Jan. 19, at 3:30 p.m.