MANCHESTER, N.H. – Three opportunities within the final 23 seconds all came up short as the New Haven men's basketball team dropped a 70-69 decision to the top seeded Saint Anselm Hawks in the semifinal round of the 2019 NCAA Division II East Region Championship. With the loss, New Haven closes out the 2018-19 campaign with a 21-10 record, matching the most wins in a single season since finishing with a 26-5 record in 1987-88.
Leading the Chargers in their final NCAA Tournament game was junior Roy Kane, Jr. (Norwalk, Conn./Norwalk) who finished with a career-high 28 points which came on 10-of-16 from the field, including 5-of-9 from beyond the three point arc. He also finished 3-of-4 at the free throw line, while pulling down a team-high nine rebounds and picking off a team-high three steals.
Kane was one of two players to collect 20+ on the game, joined by classmate Elijah Bailey (Freeport, N.Y./The Hotchkiss School) who finished with 21 points, finishing the game shooting 8-of-15 from the field. Following Kane and Bailey in leading the Chargers offense was freshman point guard Quashawn Lane (Trenton, N.J. /Trenton Catholic Academy) and redshirt sophomore Derrick Rowland (Cohoes, N.Y./Green Tech) who finished with nine points while Najee Larcher (Brooklyn, N.Y./Xaverian) added the only points off the bench, finishing with a pair.
As a team, New Haven finished the game shooting 47.4 percent, connecting on 27-of-57 field goals, including eight from beyond the three point arc. The Chargers also finished 7-of-8 at the free throw line while matching the Hawks with 27 rebounds, led by Kane's nine boards. Following him was Larcher who hauled in six boards in his final game wearing the New Haven Blue and Gold.
The teams would trade baskets over the first four minutes of the half with the Chargers taking an early 9-6 lead courtesy of a three pointer from Kane who combined with Bailey scored the first 16 of New Haven's points, eight each.
Following Kane's three pointer the Hawks outside shooting began to heat up with five of their next six buckets from long range which opened up a 25-14 lead. The Hawks rally during that stretch amounted to 19-5 and spanned nearly seven minutes.
Facing an 11 point deficit, 31-20 with just shy of four minutes remaining before the break, New Haven rattled off 11 of the final 15 points in the half to pull within two possessions, 35-31, going into the locker room. During the final four minutes went 3-of-3 from beyond the arc with long range hoops from Kane, Rowland and Lane.
Kane would lead all players at the intermission with 13 points, the only player in the game to reach double figures going into the locker room. Bailey's eight points followed while Rowland and Kane closed out the first half scoring with five points apiece. As a team, the Chargers shot 46.4 percent from the field (13-of-28) including 5-of-14 from long range for a 35.7 percent effort.
Coming out of the break, the Chargers quickly erased the deficit scoring the first five points on a three pointer from Bailey and a layup from Rowland that resulted in a 36-35 lead just over two minutes into the action. Saint Anselm reacted to that early start with a three pointer to regain a lead, they wouldn't relinquish the remainder of the game.
New Haven would manage to tie the game at 42 following back-to-back jumpers from Kane and Bailey and again at 44 thanks to a jump shot from Lane. The Hawks responded to that second stalemate by scoring eight unanswered as they pulled ahead by eight 52-44 with 11:49 to play.
The Chargers weren't able to tame a second Saint Anselm rally that equaled six unanswered points as the Hawks opened up their largest lead of the half at 60-51 with under eight minutes to play. From that point New Haven began to pick away at the lead with two three pointers from Kane that, however the Hawks equaled the second one to maintain an eight point lead with 5:22 to play.
After trading the next few points, the Chargers faced a seven point deficit with 3:12 to play and responded by scoring the next six points unanswered to pull within one at 68-67 with 67 seconds remaining.
After back-to-back timeouts from both teams, the Hawks mustered their final points of the night on a layup with 37 seconds remaining while New Haven matched that with a pair of three pointers from Kay with 28 seconds remaining.
On the next trip down the floor, the Hawks Cody Ball would come up empty on a pair of free throw attempts leaving New Haven with an opportunity to take the lead with 12.7 remaining on the clock. The first attempt from Lane would rim out with the Chargers maintaining possession after review. The next attempt came off the fingertips of Kane but again came up short with New Haven maintaining possession yet again this time with 1.5 seconds remaining.
After a scrum under the hoop on the inbound, the Chargers were never able to get off a shot in the final ticks, coming up just short of the top seed in the region.
