NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. – The University of New Haven men's basketball team captured its fourth consecutive win on Wednesday night with a 67-55 win over Merrimack. The Chargers used a big second half run to build a 21-point lead, and then held off late surge from the Warriors to move to 12-5 (7-5 NE10) on the season.

Junior Elijah Bailey (Freeport, N.Y./The Hotchkiss School) led New Haven with 21 points, and Roy Kane, Jr. (Norwalk, Conn./Norwalk) tallied 15 points, eight rebounds, and season-highs of four assists and three blocks. Freshman Quashawn Lane (Trenton, N.J. /Trenton Catholic Academy) shot a perfect 5-for-5 from the field to total 10 points, four rebounds and three assists. Kessly Felizor (Hightstown, N.J./Hightstown) and Kane, Jr. led the way on the boards for New Haven eight apiece.

The Chargers shot 44.8 percent from the field and collected 10 steals off 14 Merrimack turnovers.

FIRST HALF

·       The Chargers grabbed two early leads off three-pointers from Kane, Jr. (3-0) and Bailey (6-5).

·       Kane, Jr. grabbed a second chance putback jumper to cut the early deficit to 9-8 at 12:55.

·       Lane drove to the basket and used a reverse layup underneath, and Derrick Rowland (Cohoes, N.Y./Green Tech) followed with a three on the next possession to give New Haven an 18-12 lead. Najee Larcher (Brooklyn, N.Y./Xaverian) followed with a tip in off the miss to bring the advantage to 20-11.

·       Felizor got to the line and hit one free throw after drawing a foul on an aggressive drive the basket.

·       Lane used another tough drive thru the paint to get a short jumper to fall, getting the lead to double digits for the first time at 25-14.

·       The Warriors put together a 10-0 run to get within 26-24 over a 2:13 span.

·       Larcher ended the run with a short jumper coming out of the timeout to make it 28-24, and New Haven's defense knuckled down and forced two stops to close the half and carry a four-point lead into the locker room.

SECOND HALF

·       Bailey grabbed the offensive board and putback for two at the 15-minte mark to get it to 38-31, and Lane added fastbreak bucket off a steal by Larcher seconds later to make it 40-31, forcing a Warriors timeout.

·       Larcher notched another steal coming out of the timeout and fed Kane, Jr., who finished off the breakaway layup for two more points.

·       Kane, Jr. fed Lane streaking down the paint for a lay in off the glass, putting New Haven up 12 for the first time, 44-32 at 11:39.

·       Rowland picked off a pass that was headed for the corner and found Lane back up the court for an easy two (48-32), and the lead grew to 20 for the first time as Kane, Jr. kicked one out to Bailey for a left wing swish to give the Chargers a commanding 55-35 lead with just under eight minutes remaining.

·       Bailey added his second straight triple as he took a feed from Lane and drained another from long range to give the Chargers their largest lead of the night at 58-37 at the 6:45 mark.

·       Merrimack refused to go away, scoring six of the next seven to battle back within 59-44, forcing a Chargers timeout with 5:25 on the clock.

·       Merrimack's run extended to 14-1 over the next two minutes, shrinking the Chargers lead down to just eight, 59-51 with less than four minutes to play.

·       Bailey sank a baseline pull-up jumper at 3:29 to quell the Warriors surge to get the edge back up to 10.

·       New Haven called timeout and responded by promptly extending their run to 8-0 as Bailey followed with another jumper, Felizor hit two from the free throw line and then finished it off with a slam to make it 67-51 with 1:49 remaining.

New Haven will return home to Charger Gymnasium on Saturday afternoon for a 3:30 p.m. matinee against Stonehill.