While his classmates might be catching the final few of the 40 winks as the sun rises each morning, Ty Perry (Boston, Mass./Brighton) is already wide awake and hard at work at his home away from home.

For as long as he can remember, Perry has found solace with a basketball in his hand and it is no different in his lone season as a member of the University of New Haven men's basketball program as anybody who might walk by Charger Gymnasium each morning can attest.

"It is definitely like an everyday ritual for me, every day the first thing I do when I wake up in the morning, I probably wake up at 7, I get in the gym and make sure I get up all of my shots," Perry said. "I make sure I work on my ball handling, I work on my finishes. I make sure that I always stay consistent and always keep doing the things I am doing every day to just make myself better every day."

It is hard to argue with the results. Heading into Thursday's home game against Bloomfield, Perry is the top scorer for the 5-2 Chargers as he is putting up 16.4 points on 48.5% shooting.

He has fit right into a starting lineup that includes veteran New Haven players Davontrey Thomas (Poughkeepsie, N.Y./Poughkeepsie), Quashawn Lane (Trenton, N.J./Trenton Catholic Academy), Victor Olawoye (Elmont, N.Y./Elmont Memorial High School) and Majur Majak (Poughkeepsie, N.Y./).

"Just having experienced guys on the team is really good," Perry said.

"Having guys who have been in the NCAA tournament, having seniors, having grad students is really good because they know some things that you don't. You can always learn from them."

The 6-foot-3 Perry was no stranger to New Haven coach Ted Hotaling even before his name popped up in the transfer portal.

"I Watched Ty play in AAU the year before he went to prep school and if we had a scholarship, we would have taken him at that time,"

Hotaling said. "He had a really good opening campaign at Woodstock and his recruitment just blew up."

Fordham landed a player who graduated as the all-time leading scorer at Brighton (Mass.) High School. He started 21 games over three seasons before playing at Buffalo during the 2021-22 season.

"He's a local kid, a New England guy, loves hoops," Hotaling said. "He is in the gym every day. He is encouraging our guys, some of the guys who don't play a lot to get into the gym. I think him playing in the Atlantic 10 probably made him a better player. I think he saw how hard he had to work to play at that level and he did and I think he brought that with him here. I think that has been good, especially with our younger guys to see him in the gym before practice, in the gym after practice, and in the gym later in the afternoon. He is a kid who loves hoops and loves to compete and he is a good kid."

The Boston native gave football, baseball and even swimming a shot when he was younger, but basketball has always been his sport of choice.

"I started real young," Perry said. "I don't know the exact age and I just loved it. I always wanted to play college hoops, I always had that vision. It was my sophomore year when I said, 'OK, I can do something with this basketball thing and basketball can take me places that I had never been.'"

Perry has scored in double figures in each game this season with a season-high of 22 points coming against Saint Rose. Still, he is driven to raise the level of his play.

"I feel like I can play better," Perry said. "I feel like I can help my team out better, I can do a lot of things better. I am not satisfied with how I am playing, I am going to stay humble and just keep working because our job is not finished. Our goal is to win the championship so until we win that championship, I am not going to be satisfied."

He doesn't plan on bidding adieu to his basketball-playing days when this season is over.

"It is my last year and I do want to go pro after this year, so that is always on my mind," Perry said. "That is something I am thinking about every day and also winning the championship as well. Just thinking about the other things also, it is kind of overwhelming a little bit because it is my last year."

The early returns on his final collegiate season have been rather impressive.