SYRACUSE, N.Y. – Led by junior Roy Kane, Jr. (Norwalk, Conn./Norwalk) who finished with a season-high 19 points, the University of New Haven men's basketball team dropped a 62-55 decision on the road at Le Moyne, closing out the first half of NE10 Southwest Division play.
Kane was one of three players in double figures on the afternoon joined by redshirt sophomore Derrick Rowland (Cohoes, N.Y./Green Tech) who dropped in 13 points and senior Najee Larcher (Brooklyn, N.Y./Xaverian) who capped off the leaders with 10 points. Larcher also led the team with eight rebounds, part of 28 total as the teams finished in a deadlock in the battle of the boards.
As a team, New Haven finished the game shooting 39.1 percent from the field, connecting on 18-of-46 field goal attempts. Included in the 18 baskets were eight from outside the three point arc, while they added 11 points, on 13 attempts, at the free throw line. Individually, Rowland led the shooting efforts making 4-of-9 attempts from the field, with three of his four buckets from outside the arc.
Rowland's three long range buckets was tied for the team lead, joined by Kane, while both also finished perfect at the free throw line with Kane going 6-of-6 and Rowland hitting his two attempts. Kane followed Larcher in the rebounding column with five boards, tied for second most in the game with junior Kessly Felizor (Hightstown, N.J./Hightstown).
New Haven opened up the game with a jumper from Kane and took an early 5-3 lead courtesy of a three pointer from Felizor. Following that long range bucket, the Dolphins began what would amount to an 11-0 run that resulted in a 14-5 lead with another three pointer, this time from junior Elijah Bailey (Freeport, N.Y./The Hotchkiss School) breaking up the Le Moyne momentum.
That three pointer from Bailey began a rally for New Haven that concluded at 14-4 and a tie game with a layup from Rowland knotting the game at 19 with 3:14 remaining before the end of the half. Following that the teams would trade three pointers with Kane hitting the next one for the Chargers, before Le Moyne closed out the half scoring seven of the final nine points to take a 29-24 leading into the intermission.
Coming out of the break, the Dolphins opened up their lead to six before New Haven used a pair of three pointers, one each from Kane and Rowland to cut the Le Moyne advantage to two, 34-32. Just over the midway point in the second half, the Dolphins used back-to-back layups to build their largest lead in the period, a nine point advantage 49-40 with 8:15 remaining.
New Haven answered that deficit by scoring 10 of the next 14 points to pull back within a single possession game at 53-50 which came with just over five minutes remaining courtesy of a pair of free throws from Kane. Le Moyne wasn't going to let up, scoring the next seven points unanswered to regain a double digit advantage 60-50 with under two minutes remaining.
The Chargers will take a hiatus from Northeast-10 play with their next four games on the docket all come outside of league play. First up on that list is a visit from Goldey-Beacom at Charger Gymnasium. Tip-off against the lightning is scheduled for 7:00 p.m.
