BOX SCORE NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. – Justin Exum (Brooklyn, N.Y./Xaverian) knocked down three three-pointers to tie the University of New Haven program record and lead the men's basketball team to an 83-53 win at Merrimack on Thursday evening. Jeffery Adkins (Piscataway, N.J./Piscataway) scored a career-high 23 points in the non-conference win.
 
With their sixth consecutive victory, the Chargers improve to 7-2 on the season, while Merrimack falls to 6-5. The clubs will meet as a part of the Northeast-10 slate on Feb. 1 at Charger Gymnasium.
 
Exum, who netted 19 points in the contest, shot 3-for-5 from distance to run his career total to 251 treys. He ties Mike Grove (1989-93) atop the program leaderboard for made three-pointers in a career and moves to 15th on the all-time scoring ledger at New Haven with 1,341 career points.
 
Adkins' 23 points came on 9-for-15 shooting from the floor with a pair of triples. As a unit, the Chargers shot 30-for-58 (51.7 percent) from the field, 9-for-19 (47.4 percent) from three-point range and 14-for-21 (66.7 percent) from the free throw line. Eric Anderson (Newark, N.J./Newark Tech) scored 17 points with a game-high 10 rebounds to post his seventh double-double of the season.
 
Ashanti DePass (Baldwin, N.Y./Baldwin) was the fourth Charger in double figures with 14 points. Cyrus James (Manchester, Conn./Howell Cheney Tech) added four points and Jonny Ocasio (Queens, N.Y./Charlotte (Fla.) / Hillsborough Community College) had a pair off the bench. Donny Powell (New Rochelle, N.Y./New Rochelle) sank two late free throws for the first points of his career, and Samir McDaniels (Roxbury, Mass./New Mission) and Kevin McLaughlin (Pittsfield, Mass./Taconic) each sank one from the charity stripe to round out the scoring.

The Chargers' 83 points matched their season high. New Haven also entered the game ranked second in the nation with 58.0 points per game allowed and improved that mark tonight after ceding 53 points to the Warriors – the lowest offensive output for the club this winter. Merrimack came into the contest averaging 78.6 points per game.
 
Also seventh in Division II entering the week with an opponents' field goal percentage of 37.5 percent, New Haven limited the Warriors to 31.8 percent shooting from the floor. Merrimack was led by 13 points from Gelvis Solano. The Northeast-10's leading scorer with an average of 22.9 points per game netted the team's first nine points and shot 6-for-26 from the field overall.
 
New Haven held a 43-30 rebounding advantage, and each team committed 11 turnovers. The Chargers scored eight of the game's first 10 points and never looked back to claim their fifth wire-to-wire triumph of the season.
 
A quick six points on an Exum layup and back-to-back Adkins buckets staked the Chargers to a 16-6 advantage and forced a Merrimack timeout at the 13:57 mark in the first half. A pair of Warriors' free throws to cut the margin to 26-17 was the last time the lead would dip below double figures as a DePass three-pointer started New Haven on a 16-0 run. A three-point play from Anderson on an offensive board and put-back capped the stretch and extended the advantage to 42-17, and the Chargers soon headed into the locker room with a 45-24 cushion.
 
After the intermission, the lead grew to 32 points – the largest for New Haven at any point this season – as the Blue and Gold ran away with an 83-53 victory.
 
The Chargers return to the court on Sunday, Dec. 22 with a short trip to crosstown and Northeast-10 Southwest Division rival Southern Connecticut State. After the Owls' one-point win tonight at Le Moyne, the 3:30 p.m. contest on Sunday will be a showdown between the two clubs currently atop the division with identical 4-1 NE-10 records.