WEST HAVEN, Conn. – Not long after Majur Majak (Poughkeepsie, N.Y.) won the opening tip, it was pretty clear that the offensive game plan was going to focus on getting the 7-foot-1 center the ball within the shadow of the rim.
After Majak delivered dunk after dunk off sweet setups from his teammates, the passing became contagious. By the time the University of New Haven men's basketball team was finishing off Saint Rose 90-56 on Tuesday night at Charger Gymnasium, the Chargers not only had a season-high 26 assists but it was the highest assist total since joining the Northeast-10 Conference in 2008.
"I thought we played together as a team," Quashawn Lane (Trenton, N.J./Trenton Catholic Academy) said after recording a career-high nine assists and only one turnover. "A couple of times in previous games, we watch film a lot and we could make one more pass to make a better play and get a better shot so I thought we did that tonight."
New Haven had 22 assists in a win over D'Youville on November 13. The Chargers came one assist shy of the 20 mark the last time out against Le Moyne. There was still 6:34 left to play when Kendall McMillan (Columbia, Md./Mount Saint Joseph) set up Derrick Rowland (Cohoes, N.Y./Green Tech) for the 22nd assist of the game. The 23rd assist came 30 seconds later when Sean Smith scored off the setup from Victor Olawoye (Elmont, N.Y. /Elmont Memorial High School ).
Not only did New Haven have all five starters in double figures but four of them shot better than 62 percent from the field. Majak led the way making 5 of 6 shots on dunks to finish with a season-best 14 points. His only other double-digit scoring game this season also came against Saint Rose.
"We got into the paint real easy and Majur was just the beneficiary of good play by Quay, by Vic [Olawoye], by D-Row [Derrick Rowland (Cohoes, N.Y./Green Tech)], Tavin [Pierre Phillip]," New Haven coach Ted Hotaling said. "It is hard to get it to him sometimes, it was a little easier tonight just with the way they were playing us. I didn't think it would be that easy as far as getting into the paint to get into the paint."
Saint Rose trailed 49-27 at halftime and decided to get more aggressive with its defense. Unfortunately for the visitors, New Haven was able to break traps for layups and also got out in transition throughout the second half.
"We had a couple of highlight plays and tried to get a couple of alley-oops in," Lane said. "With the crowd there, everybody was jumping so it was a lot of energy there in the Charger Gym."
Davontrey Thomas (Poughkeepsie, N.Y./Poughkeepsie) matched Majak with 14 points, Pierre Philippe added 13 points, Victor Olawoya had 11 points off the bench while Rowland finished with 10.
Lane could have joined his teammates in double digits but he was busy playing the role of facilitator.
"I try to be a team player," Lane said. "When you want to be a part of a team, you sacrifice your own shot sometimes. I always try to get my teammates the ball, if that means passing up a shot, that's fine."
His unselfish play wasn't lost on his teammates or his coaches.
"Quay has been an accomplished player here, he knows what he has to do every game," Hotaling said. "He is excellent, very steady and just makes everybody better."
The win moved New Haven (13-7, 9-6 in the Northeast-10) into third place in the Southwest Division while Saint Rose falls to 10-9, 7-7 despite 23 points from Tray Alexander.
