BOX SCORE WEST HAVEN, Conn. – The University of New Haven men’s basketball team resumed Northeast-10 action on Saturday with its largest-ever margin of victory in an NE-10 game, taking an 87-59 decision from visiting Pace. Justin Exum (Brooklyn, N.Y./Xaverian) scored a game-high 23 points in the Chargers’ fifth consecutive victory.
 
With their fifth straight triumph, New Haven improves to 6-5 overall and 3-4 in conference action. Pace also now stands at 6-5 on the season with a 3-4 NE-10 tally.
 
In addition to being New Haven’s largest-ever margin of victory in an NE-10 game, the 28-point win matches the Chargers’ 90-62 win over Molloy on Dec. 31, 2011 as the largest under third-year head coach Ted Hotaling. The Chargers’ 87 points are also New Haven’s highest offensive output in an NE-10 game since joining the conference prior to the 2008-09 season.
 
Exum, who entered the day ranked fifth in all of Division II at 50.7 percent from three-point range, shot 3-for-6 from downtown and 9-for-16 from the field overall en route to his 23 points. Cyrus James (Manchester, Conn./Howell Cheney Tech) added a career-best 18 points on 6-for-8 shooting and a perfect 6-for-6 at the free throw line.

Eric Anderson (Newark, N.J./Newark Tech) recorded his sixth double-double of the season with 14 points and 11 rebounds. Anderson, who knocked down three three-pointers in the closing minutes of the first half, also blocked five shots. He began the game as the nation’s sixth most-prolific rebounder at 11.4 boards per game.
 
Jeffery Adkins (Piscataway, N.J./Piscataway) also reached double figures with 16 points complemented by a game-high nine assists and seven rebounds. Jeremy Williams (Silver Spring, Md./Springbrook) rounded out the starting five’s output with nine points and five assists.
 
Off the bench, Ashanti DePass (Baldwin, N.Y./Baldwin) had three points and four rebounds. Joshua Guddemi (Nottingham, England/Derby) added two points and Travis Whitfield (Harlem, N.Y./Saint Mary's) netted the first points of his collegiate career with the final two points of the afternoon.
 
Collectively, the Chargers shot a season-high 50.8 percent from the field (32-for-63). The team’s nine made three-pointers matched the season best also attained at Assumption and at Molloy. New Haven also protected the basketball to the tune of only five turnovers.
 
The Setters got 18 points from Keon Williams to lead four players scoring in double figures. Pace shot 18-for-55 (32.7 percent) from the field.
 
The Chargers led nearly wire-to-wire and never trailed. Adkins scored the first points on a coast-to-coast layup and, after Pace got the board, Williams knocked down two three-pointers as a part of a 7-0 run that gave New Haven a 9-2 advantage that it would not relinquish. The lead briefly shrank to 12-10 with 13:40 left in the half, but the Setters would never be within one possession again. The Chargers put together a 16-5 run and, later in the half, rattled off eight straight to open up a 19-point lead. When the first-half horn sounded, New Haven headed into the locker room with a comfortable 48-29 advantage.
 
Pace was unable to cut into the lead in the second half, as the margin never shrank below 17 points. Exum scored 15 of his 23 points after the break as the cushion grew as large as 28 points on Whitfield’s first career points to cap the 87-59 triumph.
 
Over their current five-game winning streak, the Chargers are scoring 72.6 points per game and allowing 58.2. Exum has scored 20.2 points per game during the stretch while shooting 19-for-36 (52.8 percent) from three-point range.
 
The Chargers are back in action on Wednesday, Jan. 9 for a visit from Stonehill. New Haven tips off against the Skyhawks, who advanced to the national semifinals last season, from Charger Gymnasium at 7:30 p.m.