ALBANY, N.Y. – The University of New Haven women's basketball team suffered a 65-53 defeat to the College of Saint Rose on Saturday afternoon. Leading by 11 in the closing seconds of the first, the Chargers (5-3, 1-2 NE10) struggled to begin the second quarter, as the Golden Knights (4-3, 2-3 NE10) outscored New Haven 40-13 over the middle two quarters for their second straight conference win.
Sophomore Brie Pergola (Torrington, Conn./Torrington) tied her season-high with 16 points on 7-of-10 shooting to go with two rebounds and three assists. Senior Katia Oge (New City, N.Y./Immaculate Heart Academy) scored a season-high 10 points and added eight rebounds on 5-of-8 shooting, freshman Camryn DeBose (Wellington, Fla./Wellington Community) also scored 10 points, and senior Alexandria Kerr (Montclair, N.J./Montclair) pulled down 16 rebounds, the most by a Charger since Oge had 18 against Chestnut Hill last December.
"I thought we started the game well, but they switched defenses and stopped moving the ball," said head coach Deborah Buff. "You have to play four quarters especially on the road, and I thought we played a good fourth quarter with a sense of urgency. I think we need to play with more energy for four quarters."
The Golden Knights finished the game shooting an even 50 percent from the floor, while New Haven finished 24-for-68 (35.3 percent) and 4-for-18 from beyond the arc. New Haven held a 42-33 edge in rebounding, which corresponded to a 19-3 advantage in second chance points. Each team committed 12 turnovers and came away with eight steals.
Both teams started the game sluggish from the field, combining for a 3-for-12 start. After a pair of early layups from Micah Wormack (Cumberland, Md./Allegany), both teams swapped baskets just shy of the five-minute mark with Pergola and DeBose sinking consecutive jumpers to put New Haven up 8-5 at the 4:39 mark.
After Saint Rose cut it to one, New Haven ran off 12 of the next 14 points, culminating with a long jumper by Pergola from the top of the key at 2:24. Overall, New Haven closed the period on a 12-4 run to lead 20-11 after one. New Haven finished the quarter 9-for-17 after a 2-for-7 start.
Unfortunately for the Chargers, the script flipped with the start of the second quarter. A 10-0 run by the Knights, including the first eight points of the second, got them within one at 20-19 at the 7:49 mark. DeBose broke the run with a steal, and took it all the way for a layup to make it 22-19. The Golden Knights knotted it at 22-all on their next possession with a three by Ashley Vanderwall, but DeBose had the quick answer with a triple of her own from the left wing to make it 25-22 at the 6:10 mark.
From there, the Knights ended the half on an 11-3 run to build up a 33-25 lead going into the locker room. They outscored the Chargers 22-5 in the period, New Haven's lowest scoring output of the season for a single quarter. Saint Rose shot over 58 percent in the period, and forced six New Haven turnovers while holding the Chargers to just 2-of-13 from the field.
Kerr found Wormack down low for a layup to make it 33-27 in the opening moments of the third. Saint Rose then rattled off seven-straight, highlighted by a Vanderwall three-pointer to grow the lead to 13, 40-27 and forcing a full New Haven timeout at 6:43.
The Knights upped the run to 10-0 with a deep three by Vanderwall from the right wing. Pergola ended the streak with a second chance jumper in the lane, and sank a deep jumper on the next possession to make it 43-31. In total, Saint Rose used a 7-for-11 shooting performance and an 18-8 frame to take a 51-33 lead after three quarters of play.
DeBose connected from the corner to get within 51-38 in the first two minutes. On the next possession, Kerr found Oge down low for a hoop and the foul. Kerr then grabbed the rebound off the missed free throw and put it in for two to make it a 9-0 run and a 51-42 game.
Coming off a timeout, Kerr added another putback to make it a seven-point game, but the Knights then used back-to-back threes from the right corner to quickly get the lead back to 13. An Oge putback layup cut it to 10 once again 59-49 with 2:30 to go, but that was as close as the Chargers would get.
"Saint Rose is a good team, but we have to be road warriors," Buff said. "Brie Pergola (Torrington, Conn./Torrington) played well for us and we had a lot of good looks inside, but we couldn't convert. We have to put this one behind us now and focus on Pace."
New Haven will return home this Tuesday for the first time in five games for a NE10 matchup against Pace. Tipoff is at 5:30 p.m. on NE10 NOW.
