WEST HAVEN, Conn. – After trailing by five at the half, the New Haven women's basketball team used a 20-5 third quarter to erase the deficit and pull away from the visiting Saint Rose Golden Knights, picking up the sixth straight win 67-54 . With the win, New Haven improves to 12-7 on the season and 9-6 in the Northeast-10 Conference.

Leading the Chargers on the night was senior captain Aurora Deshaies (Syracuse, N.Y./Bishop Ludden) who finished with a season-high 23 points, all but four of which came in the second half. The post player closed out the night shooting 11-of-14 from the field, while completing her NE10 leading 11th double double pulling down 14 boards.

Overall, Deshaies was one of two Chargers in double figures, joined by her fellow captain, graduate guard Camryn DeBose (Wellington, Fla./Wellington Community) who chipped in with a dozen. Graduate transfer Leighanna Lister (Kutztown, Pa./Northwestern Lehigh) and senior point guard Kameryn King (Old Saybrook, Conn./Mercy) each finished with eight to round out the leading scorers, while King added her 11th game of the season with 5+ assists, finishing with a handful.

As a team, New Haven finished the game shooting 51.9 percent from the field, connecting on 27-of-52, with all but three of those buckets coming inside the three point arc. The Chargers also added 10-of-15 at the free throw line.

The Chargers will continue a three-game homestand with a weekend showdown with the American International Yellow Jackets who will visit town on Saturday, February 4. With the game being the final weekend contest of the regular season for the Blue and Gold, prior to tipoff the Chargers will honor their seven seniors. Tipoff in the NE10 battle is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. with all of the action available on the Charger Sports Network part of NE10 NOW.

FIRST QUARTER HIGHLIGHTS

·        A couple of early lead changes was the only back-and-forth action in the first quarter as the Golden Knights opened up as much as an eight point lead in the first 10 minutes.

·        After a layup from Deshaies provided a 3-2 lead for the home team, Saint Rose used a 9-0 run to extend their lead to eight for the first time with 5:16 remaining. They would go on to match that lead three additional times.

·        New Haven would get the final say in the quarter with Deshaies striking again on a turnaround jumper in the paint.

SECOND QUARTER HIGHLIGHTS

·        It took nearly two minutes before either team would score in the second quarter but it was the Chargers that did so first with Lister getting the hoop off a feed from King, cutting the Saint Rose lead to 18-14.

·        The Golden Knights responded by scoring seven of the next nine points to open up their largest lead of the night, nine points, which they matched once more with 3:30 remaining.

·        Trailing by nine, the Chargers would begin to make their push, closing out the period on a 6-2 run, trailing by five going into the break. All six of those points came unanswered with buckets from Bianca Pendleton (Accokeek, Md./New Hope Academy), Deshaies and King.

THIRD QUARTER HIGHLIGHTS

·        After regrouping at the intermission, New Haven came out stronger in the third quarter, limiting the Golden Knights to just five points which came on a pair of field goals.

·        After trading points for much of the first five minutes, the Golden Knights tied the score at 34-34 with their final field goal of the quarter at the 5:50 mark. From that point, the Chargers would end the period on a 10-0 run, which was sparked by a second chance layup from Lister.

·        Overall among the 10 point rally, half of came from DeBose, including a three pointer that followed the Lister bucket, while she also ended the half with a drive to the hoop for two after forcing the turnover on the other end with an offensive foul.

FOURTH QUARTER HIGHLIGHTS

·        The strong defense to end the third carried over to the fourth for the Chargers as they would go on to extend the Golden Knights drought to more than 10 minutes between field goals. During that first five minute stretch of the fourth quarter, New Haven extended its rally to 22-0 to put the contest out of reach.

·        It wasn't a one-person show in that early run, with five different players all converting field goal attempts, all of which came inside the arc.

·        Coming down the stretch, New Haven would work its lead to 18 with 2:36 remaining while the Golden Knights attempted to make a late run, but would never collapse the deficit into single digits.