BRONXVILLE, N.Y. – Redshirt-junior guard
Derrick Rowland (Cohoes, N.Y./Green Tech) knocked down a game-high 16 points as men's basketball cruised to an 85-55 victory over Concordia College Monday night. Rowland, who finished with a team-high four three pointers, added four assists, three rebounds and a steal.
Overall, Rowland was one of three Chargers in double-figures in the season opener, joined by redshirt-freshman
Antonio Lopez (Medford, N.Y./St. Anthony's), who saw his first collegiate minutes, who finished with 13 points and senior
Kessly Felizor (Hightstown, N.J./Hightstown) who dropped 12 points. Lopez finished the game 4-of-5 from the field while adding four free throws to go along with four boards and two assists. Felizor finished the game 5-of-8 with a pair of three pointers, while adding a team-high six rebounds and an assist.
Sophomore
Quashawn Lane (Trenton, N.J./Trenton Catholic Academy) finished with nine points while dishing out a game-high seven dimes and pulled down four rebounds and picked off two steals. Rounding out the leading scorers was redshirt-sophomore
Ross Jones II (Edgewood, Md./Friends School) who matched Lane with nine points. Overall, 10 different players scored at least one field goal on the night.
The Chargers came out of the gates firing, going on an 8-0 run to open the contest and never looked back. The Clippers bounced back with a 6-2 run of their own before an almost five-minute scoreless drought where the teams combined for just one point by way of the charity stripe.
From there New Haven broke out to a 23-10 lead through the middle of the first half the first double digit advantage of the night. After Concordia crept back to within eight, the Blue and Gold broke out on another run, a 15-0 streak which included six points from Lane and would close the half up 40-25.
The second half started just as the first did with the Chargers scoring the first eight points out of the break with Felizor accounting for all eight points, staring off with back-to-back three pointers from Felizor that came just 26 seconds apart.
The largest lead for the Chargers came with 6:10 remaining in the game when Lopez followed up a block on the defensive end from freshman
Sean Braithwaite (Center Moriches, N.Y./Center Moriches) with a layup on the other end just 11 seconds later. From that point, the Clippers would close out the game scoring 15 of the final 21 points to provide the final margin of 85-55.
New Haven will return home for its only game at Charger Gymnasium in the month of November when they open Northeast-10 Conference play against Le Moyne on Saturday, November 23. Tipoff between the Chargers and Dolphins is scheduled for 3:30 p.m. and will follow the women's game which is scheduled for a 1:30 p.m. start.
