WALTHAM, Mass. – Never count the Chargers out. Trailing by 27 points with 19 minutes left, the New Haven men's basketball team clawed its way back and found itself with a chance to win in the final seconds when Quashawn Lane (Trenton, N.J./Trenton Catholic Academy) drove the left side to the baseline where he finger-rolled the game winner as the buzzer sounded to shock the Bentley Falcons 60-59. With the win, the Chargers improve to 12-4 on the season and are now in a three-way tie for first place in the Northeast-10 with a 9-2 record.

The game-winner from Lane closed out the second 20+ game of the season for the graduate guard as he led all Chargers on the night with a season-best 21 points, going 9-of-20 from the field, including a trio of three pointers. He also led New Haven dishing out six assists.

Overall, Lane was one of three players in double figures joined by Justin Hendrick (Valley Stream, N.Y./St. Francis) who came off the bench to spark the Chargers and finish with a career-high 14 points and junior Davontrey Thomas (Poughkeepsie, N.Y./Poughkeepsie) who finished with 11 points. Hendrick finished his night with five field goals, four of which came from outside the arc, while Thomas shot 50 percent from the field on 4-of-8 shooting with three of those field goals from three-point distance.

Rounding out New Haven's scoring was transfer Ty Perry (Boston, Mass./Brighton) and center Majur Majak (Poughkeepsie, N.Y./) who each finished with seven points. Majak also led New Haven with 16 boards, part of 35 total for the Blue and Gold.

As a team, New Haven finished the game shooting 37.5 percent from the field, connecting on 24-of-64 field goal attempts with 10 three pointers. The Chargers rebounded from a 16.1 percent opening half to shoot 57.6 percent (19-of-33) in the second half. Additionally, after hitting just one three pointer in the first half, New Have finished 9-of-21 in the second half as they chipped away at the deficit.

FIRST HALF HIGHLIGHTS

·        New Haven opened up the game on a drought, needing more than three minutes before getting on the board 3:30 into the game on a jumper from Perry.

·        Two minutes later, a Majak slam would cut the Falcons lead down to eight and the Chargers would again pull the deficit to eight with 13:28 remaining when Perry struck again, this time with an and-one off the fast break.

·        The Falcons would answer that Perry play by scoring nine unanswered to quickly extend their lead to 19 with 8:34 remaining in the period.

·        More than a minute after facing that 19-point deficit, Lane broke the Falcons momentum with the lone first half three pointer for the Chargers thanks to an assist from Perry.

·        That was the first of back-to-back buckets from Lane as he cut the Falcons lead down to 14, but Bentley wasn't going to let up, closing out the half on an 11-0 run to take a 37-12 lead into the intermission.

SECOND HALF HIGHLIGHTS

·        Bentley came out of the intermission just like they ended the half, scoring the first points of the frame to extend their lead to its largest of the night, 27.

·        New Haven didn't let that get them down, beginning their comeback with a 14-0 run that spanned the next five minutes and cut the Falcons lead to 39-26. It was the three pointer that helped the Chargers start storming back with three of the five buckets in that stretch from long range.

·        The Falcons used a three pointer of their own to break that New Haven rally, but Thomas answered right back with one of his own 41 seconds later, the first of back-to-back buckets for the junior, the second cutting the Chargers lead to 11.

·        After trading the next four baskets, New Haven finally managed to cut its deficit down to single digits with a fast break from Lane doing so.

·        That bucket from Lane was the first of three-straight from the graduate guard, with the next two coming from outside the arc and cutting the Chargers lead to as little as three, 46-43, with 6:55 remaining.

·        A three pointer from Hendrick just over a minute later cut the deficit down to two, but the Falcons looked to rebound by regaining a nine point lead twice, the latter with 2:06 remaining in the game.

·        That Falcons bucket, which came from McCLure, was the last points of the night for the Falcons despite a pair of opportunities at the free throw line where they would miss the front end of the one-and-one on both trips.

·        After Hendrick cut the lead to six, Majak followed with a rebound on one end and a dunk on the other to cut the lead to four with 59 seconds remaining.

·        After trading turnovers and the first miss front end free throw from Bentley, Hendrick struck again with his fourth three pointer leaving just seven seconds on the clock, cutting the lead to 59-58.

·        The Chargers again forced the Falcons to the line where they missed another front end. Majak again pulled down the board and found the outlet. With just four seconds to work with, Lane found a path to the hoop from the left side where he finished the game-winner as time expired.