GAME DAY INFORMATION DATE: March 11, 2023 LOCATION: Stoutenburgh Gymnasium Manchester, N.H. GAME DAY LINKS LIVE STATS | LIVE VIDEO

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THE LEAD
For the second straight season, the New Haven men's basketball team will play for a national title. The quest for that Championship begins with the East Region Championship with the Chargers entering the postseason as the four seed and will take on fifth seeded Pace in the quarterfinals. Since the current regional format began, New Haven has a 4-2 record in the quarterfinal round, while this represents the first meeting between New Haven and Pace in the NCAA playoffs. All of the action from Saint Anselm's Stoutenburgh Gymnasium can be seen live on SaintAnselmHawks.tv.

SCOUTING THE CHARGERS
Heading into the national postseason tournament, New Haven continues to rely heavily on its starting five who are all averaging more 29+ minutes per game, with three of the five averaging in double figures in the scoring column and the five combined providing 86% of the total scoring (1,750-of-2,025 total points). Leading the team individually is Graduate guard Quashawn Lane (Trenton, N.J./Trenton Catholic Academy) who with 21 points in the NE10 Championship against Saint Anselm took over the lead with his 15.0 ppg average. Lane has scored in double figures in all but three games this season, and surpassed 20+ in the scoring column in five games. For the season, lane is shooting 52.7 percent (165-313) and leads the team with 115 assists and 44 steals. Following him in the scoring column is transfer guard Ty Perry (Boston, Mass./Brighton) who has scored 20+ in eight games this season and is averaging 14.9 ppg. Among his eight 20+ performance is a trio of games where he hit his career-high of 24. Junior Davontrey Thomas (Poughkeepsie, N.Y./Poughkeepsie) rounds out the top three with a 12.8 ppg average, including leading the team from beyond the arc with 75 three pointers. Rounding out the starting five is Victor Olawoye (Elmont, N.Y./Elmont Memorial High School) and Majur Majak (Poughkeepsie, N.Y./) who average 9.3 and 6.8 ppg, respectively. Among the five, Majak leads the team and the NE10 with an impressive 61.7 percent (82-of-133) shooting from the field. Majak is also the NE10's leading rebounder (11.5 per game) and shot blocker with 90 stuffed attempts, which also rank him third nationally in both rebounding and total blocks.

SCOUTING THE SETTERS
After winning its first NE10 Championship games over Adelphi, the Setters dropped their quarterfinal match-up to the eventual NE10 Champion Saint Anselm Hawks by a 78-70 margin before earning one of four at-large bids from the NE10 for the NCAA East Region Championship. For the season, the Setters are outscoring their opponents by 4.4 points per game, averaging just shy of 70 ppg offensively, while their 65.5 ppg allowed defensively is the third best in the NE10. Leading Pace into its second straight NCAA playoff appearance is brothers Brandon and Bryan Powell who are first and second on the team in scoring, respectively, and were both named to NE10 All-Conference teams. Brandon Powell's 16.3 ppg average leads all Pace scorers, while Bryan follows him with a 14.5 ppg average. Both brothers provide an outside shooting threat, with Brandon leading the team with 80 buckets from outside the arc, while Bryan adds 50. Lyron Bennett rounds out the leading scorers for the Setters with his 16.3 ppg average, while he also leads the team with 141 assists.

SERIES HISTORY vs PACE

·         New Haven and Pace meet for the 36th time in the history of the two programs.

·         New Haven holds a 20-15 advantage in the previous 35 games, including a series of 13-of-15 that stretched the 2010's

·         With the win earlier this season, New Haven broke a four-game win streak in the series for Pace who swept the home-and-home in both 2019-20 and 2021-22.

·         Last season, Pace averaged 26.5 points more than the Chargers in sweeping the series, limiting New Haven to an average of just 46.5 points across the two games.

·         New Haven and Pace have never met in the NCAA tournament prior to tonight, while the Chargers and Setters have only met one time previous in the postseason, that coming in the 2012 NE10 Championship with New Haven taking a 51-49 victory to advance to the quarterfinal round.

NEW HAVEN IN THE NCAA TOURNAMENT
New Haven makes its 10th appearance in the NCAA Championship and its third in the last four seasons. The 2023 appearance is also the fifth in the 12-year tenure of head coach Ted Hotaling. Overall, New Haven owns a 5-11 record in the NCAA Championship. Heading into 2023, the Chargers have won their first-round game in each of its last two appearances (2019, 2022) and three of its last four appearances (2013). The meeting against Pace in the quarterfinals marks the first time the two teams will meet in the NCAA Tournament.

BUILDING A POWER BRAND
With this year's men's basketball selection to the national tournament, the University of New Have is part of an elite group as one of just three schools who have qualified for the national tournament in both football and men's basketball in each of the last two seasons. In 2022, the Chargers were one of eight teams who advanced to both tournament and one of just three schools to win at least one game in both tournaments. This season, we take it one step further and are now one of just three teams to advance to the national tournament in both sports in back-to-back seasons. The other two teams joining the Chargers are Northwest Missouri State and Ferris State, the latter of which one the NCAA Division II Football Championship.

EARLIER THIS SEASON VS THE SETTERS
Graduate guard Quashawn Lane (Trenton, N.J./Trenton Catholic Academy) scored six unanswered then provided the pick and pass to Davontrey Thomas (Poughkeepsie, N.Y./Poughkeepsie) who iced the Chargers 56-50 win over Pace with a fastbreak dunk. Lane led all players in the game with 18 points which was part of a pair in double figures with guard Victor Olawoye (Elmont, N.Y./Elmont Memorial High School) joining him with 11 points. Thomas' late dunk gave him seven for the game, while Ty Perry (Boston, Mass./Brighton) added nine and Majur Majak (Poughkeepsie, N.Y./) finished with eight. The Chargers starting five scored all but three of the 56 total points. In addition to his eight points, Majak also pulled down a game-high 14 rebounds as the Chargers finished with a 42-29 advantage on the boards. As a team, New Haven finished the game shooting 34.4 percent, connecting on 21-of-61, with a third of those buckets from outside the three point arc. The Chargers also went 7-of-9 from the free throw line.

NEXT TIME OUT
The winner of Saturday night's East Region quarterfinal between New Haven and Pace will advance to the semifinal round where they will face the winner of top seed, and host, Saint Anselm and the eighth seed and CACC Champion, Caldwell. The semifinal round is scheduled for Sunday, March 12 with the match-up of these two winners set for a 7:30 p.m. tip. The 2023 East Region Championship will take place on Tuesday, March 14 at 7:00 p.m. All games in the East Regional will be played at Saint Anselm's Stoutenburgh Gymnasium.