WORCESTER, Mass. – The University of New Haven men's basketball team (7-6, 4-4 Northeast-10) outscored Assumption 14-4 over the final four minutes to earn its first Northeast-10 cross-divisional victory of the season, defeating the Greyhounds 64-56 on Saturday at Laska Gymnasium. Leading the Chargers on the afternoon was senior point guard Danny Upchurch (Bridgeport, Conn./Notre Dame Catholic) who finished with 20 points, his third-straight game with 20 or more.

Upchurch was one of two Chargers in double figures joined by junior forward Najee Larcher (Brooklyn, N.Y./Xaverian) who completed his second double double of the season with 10 points and 10 rebounds. Combined the two leading scorers shot 55.6 percent from the field, making 10-of-18 field goal attempts. Larcher led the duo, making four of his six attempts while adding two free throws in as many attempts. Upchurch finished the afternoon making half of his 12 field goal attempts, three of which came from outside the three point arc. He also added five points at the free throw line, while dishing out a team-high eight assists.

Overall as a team, New Haven finished the game shooting 44.0 percent, making 22 field goals in 50 attempts. Seven of those 22 field goals came from outside the arc, while the Chargers finished 12-of-20 (65.0 percent) at the free throw line. The Chargers also finished the day with a 39-32 advantage on the boards with Larcher's 10 rebounds part of two players in double figures as sophomore Roy Kane, Jr. (Norwalk, Conn./Norwalk) finished with a career-high12 boards.

FIRST HALF HIGHLIGHTS

·         Neither team was able to find the hoop in the opening minutes of the game as they two squads combined to go 0-of-7 in the first four minutes before Larcher broke the scoring drought with a slam dunk that provided a 4-1 lead.

·         After an Assumption layup made it a two point game with 11:36 remaining in the half, the Chargers went on their first rally of the afternoon, scoring eight unanswered points over the next three minutes, resulting in the largest lead of the day, 18-8.

·         New Haven would never muster another double digit lead the remainder of the game as another dunk from Larcher with 5:30 remaining before the break proved to be the final bucket allowed by Assumption as they rattled off the final six points of the half to tie the contest at 24-24 going into the intermission.

·         The Chargers offensive attack was balanced in the opening half with six different players scoring, four of which finished with five or more points. Leading the way was Larcher who finished with a half dozen, while Elijah Bailey (Freeport, N.Y./The Hotchkiss School), Kessly Felizor (Hightstown, N.J./Hightstown) and Derrick Rowland (Cohoes, N.Y./Green Tech) all finished with five points.

·         Larcher also pulled down six first half rebounds en route to his double double, while as a team, New Haven finished the opening half with a 19-13 rebounds advantage.

SECOND HALF HIGHLIGHTS

·         Assumption would score the first basket of the second half before the Chargers rattled off back-to-back-to-back buckets to take a 30-26 lead that they would never relinquish. All three of those first buckets in the second half came from Upchurch.

·         Extended, Upchurch would score New Haven's first four baskets of the second half, all amounting to nine-straight points. Take it even further and Upchurch scored 12 of the first 14 points in the half for New Haven with the only other bucket from Kane.  

·         In the second half, the Blue and Gold would build its lead to as much as eight on a pair of occasions before the late-game rally put the contest out of reach for the Greyhounds. Both of those eight point advantages came on Charger layups, the first from Kane and the second from Larcher.

·         After an Assumption three pointer from Matt Kelly pulled the Greyhounds within one, 52-51, the Chargers took control and pulled away for good down the stretch. That one point deficit came with 5:09 remaining in the game, while New Haven responded to that by scoring 10 of the next 12 points to open up the largest second half lead at 62-53 with 28 seconds remaining.

·         Overall, Upchurch led the Chargers in the second half scoring all 20 of his points in that period alone. He would finish the half shooting 6-of-8 from the field, including a perfect 3-of-3 from long range, while going 5-of-8 at the free throw line. He also dished out five of his eight total assists in the second half alone.

UP NEXT
New Haven will play a second-straight road contest on Tuesday night when they travel to Colchester, Vt. where they will meet the Saint Michael's Purple Knights. Tip-off in the cross-divisional match-up is scheduled for 7:30 p.m. following the women's game at Saint Michael's Vincent Ross Sports Center. The Chargers will return to Charger Gym on Saturday, January 13 when they open up a two game home stand against Bentley.