WEST HAVEN, Conn. – From the opening tip to the final buzzer, the New Haven women's basketball led for the full 40 minutes as they scooped up their eighth straight victory with a 49-40 decision against the Saint Michael's Purple Knights. With the win, New Haven improves to 14-7 overall and 11-6 in the Northeast-10 Conference.

"Saint Michael's puts up a tough test every time out as a scrappy opponent, but I felt we kept our composure throughout and played stelar defense for 40 minutes," said head coach Debbie Buff. "Our goal was to outrebound them, and we did that. We followed the plan we had going in and we came out with our eighth straight win."

Leading the Chargers on the night was graduate guard Camryn DeBose (Wellington, Fla./Wellington Community) who put up a game-best 17 points, connecting on 6-of-16 from the field, including a pair of free throws, while adding 3-of-4 at the free throw line. DeBose was one of two players in double figures, joined by senior point guard Kameryn King (Old Saybrook, Conn./Mercy) who finished with a dozen.

Overall, six different players got in on the scoring action with just four points coming from the bench, those from sophomore Bianca Pendleton (Accokeek, Md./New Hope Academy) who was a perfect 2-of-2 from the floor. Leighanna Lister (Kutztown, Pa./Northwestern Lehigh) (8 points), Aurora Deshaies (Syracuse, N.Y./Bishop Ludden) (6) and Lindsay Hogan (Bayville, N.Y./Locust Valley) (2) rounded out the New Haven scoring.

As a team, the Blue and Gold finished the game shooting 33.3 percent as they connected on 17-of-51 attempts from the field. Three of those 17 baskets came from outside the arc, while they missed just one of their 13 free throw attempts. The Chargers also held a 36-26 lead on the boards, led by Deshaies who pulled down 13 and Lister who corralled 11.

New Haven will head on the road after finishing up a perfect 3-for-3 in the homestand, with its next game coming in the City of Brotherly Love when the Chargers take on Chestnut Hill with tipoff set for 6:00 p.m. at Sorgenti Arena.

FIRST QUARTER HIGHLIGHTS

·        New Haven opened up an early 5-0 lead and would never look back from that point. The first three points of the night came from King who completed an old fashioned three point play.

·        After the Purple Knights put their first points up with a three pointer, the Chargers rattled off four-straight to take a 9-3 lead with 4:54 to play in the opening period, and quickly extended their lead into double figures just over two minutes later.

·        The first two baskets from the visiting team came from beyond the arc, but New Haven answered the second one by scoring 11 unanswered to take a 20-6 lead courtesy of a DeBose jumper in the paint off a Purple Knights turnover.

·        The Chargers matched that 14 point lead at the first buzzer, taking a 22-8 advantage to the bench for the intermission.

·        Defensively, New Haven held the Purple Knights to just three field goals, in 13 attempts, in the first 10 minutes, while also forcing five turnover and turning those into seven points.

SECOND QUARTER HIGHLIGHTS

·        New Haven opened the second quarter the same as the first, scoring the first basket to extend its lead to 16. The Purple Knights responded by scoring six straight to drop the Chargers lead to 10.

·        After regaining a 14 points lead with 3:50 remaining, the teams would swap the final three buckets with New Haven taking a 30-18 lead into the halftime break.

·        Lister provided the final points of the half for New Haven, while Hogan looked to end the half with a three-quarter court heave that had the distance but was just off the mark.

·        All eight of New Haven points in the second quarter came from different players, with all four field goals coming inside the three point arc.

THIRD QUARTER HIGHLIGHTS

·        For the first time on the night, the Purple Knights scored the first points of the period, however it would come on one of their two field goals in the period as they were held to just 2-of-8 defensively.

·        New Haven answered that first bucket from Saint Michael's by scoring the next six unanswered to match their largest lead in the first half of 16.

·        The Chargers would go on to extend that lead to 19 with 2:38 to play as the Purple Knights only points over an eight minute stretch came on a pair of 1-for-1 attempts at the free throw line.

·        Saint Michael's would get the final word of the period with a floating jumper that came with six seconds remaining.

FOURTH QUARTER HIGHLIGHTS

·        The Purple Knights continued the momentum of that final basket at the end of the third by scoring the first seven points in the fourth quarter to pull the Chargers leading into single digits.

·        That early rally for Saint Michael's came to an end thanks to a three pointer from King which came courtesy of the handoff from Deshaies as the two worked together on an inbound set play.

·        The three's continued as DeBose sank another for New Haven to regain a 15-point lead for the Chargers before Saint Michael's rallied again, this time cutting the Blue and Gold lead down to eight with 3:08 remaining.

·        However that field goal at the three minute mark would prove to be the final for the Purple Knights with the final five points from either team in the final two minutes coming from the free throw line.