WEST HAVEN, Conn. – Off to its best start post CoVID, the New Haven women's basketball team improved to 7-1 on the season with a 59-37 win over the visiting Bridgeport Purple Knights in a battle of I-95. Leading the Chargers on the night was senior guard Charlotte Bassett (Glastonbury, Conn./Glastonbury) who finished with her first double double of the season with 14 points and 11 rebounds.

Bassett was the lone Charger to finish in double figures and one of just two players total in the game. Following the Glastonbury, Conn. native in the scoring column for New Haven was a trio of Chargers who closed out the game one point shy of a double double, junior Lindsay Hogan (Bayville, N.Y./Locust Valley), freshman Schuyler Coles (Harrisburg, Pa./Susquehanna Township) and senior Bianca Pendleton (Accokeek, Md./New Hope Academy). The nine points for Coles came on her first collegiate start as she also led the team with four assists and picked off three steals.

Individually, Pendleton and Nayeli Dowding (Baldwin, N.Y./Baldwin) came off the bench to lead the way in the shooting column with the senior's nine points coming on 4-of-6 shooting and Dowding finishing 3-of-5 on the night for six points. Bassett's game-high 14 points came on a 6-of-12 effort with a pair of free throws included in her half dozen hoops.

As a team, New Haven finished the game shooting 39.3 percent, closing out three of the four quarters shooting 40 percent or better with the best coming in the fourth where they finished 6-of-11 for a 54.5 percent effort. The Chargers also capitalized on 18 Bridgeport turnovers, scoring 18 points off of those miscues.

The Chargers also won the battle of the boards, closing out the 40 minutes of action with a 45-39 advantage, led by Bassett's 11 boards. Overall, eight players finished with at least two rebounds with transfer Aniya McDonald-Perry (Middletown, Conn./Putnam Science Academy) following Bassett with seven boards. Eleven of the Chargers 45 rebounds came on the offensive glass as they turned those into 12 second chance opportunities.

FIRST QUARTER NOTES

·         New Haven opened up the scoring with a three pointer from Bassett on its opening possession and never looked back as they led for the entire 40 minutes.

·         Defensively, the Chargers held Bridgeport off the board for nearly three minutes and limited the Purple Knights to just three first quarter buckets.

·         The Blue and Gold were able to open up a double digit lead in the first 10 minutes of action with that coming eight minutes into the game when Paige Cote (Sanford, Maine/Sanford) scoring off a pass from Dowding to put the margin at 19-9.

·         Cote would strike once more before the break to extend the lead to a dozen where it would stand at the first intermission.

·         Defensively, the Chargers held Bridgeport without a field goal for nearly the final four minutes of the quarter with the Purple Knights only points in the final 3:45 coming at the free throw line.

SECOND QUARTER NOTES

·         Unlike the first quarter it was the Purple Knights that struck first in the second, however the Chargers answered with back-to-back buckets to extend the lead to 14.

·         After a pair of free throws from the Purple Knights, New Haven rattled off six unanswered to extend the lead to 18, while they would push it to 20 for the first time with just over 90 seconds remaining before the halftime break.

·         McDonald-Perry connected on a jumper with 52 seconds remaining to push the lead to its largest of the half of 22, while Coles matched that with the final basket of the half which was a putback opportunity as the buzzer sounded.

·         Just like the first quarter, New Haven held the Purple Knights to just three baskets in the second 10 minutes of action as they finished the first half shooting just 20.7 percent (6-of-29).

·         The Chargers pressure defense also forced Bridgeport into nine turnovers in the first 20 minutes as they finished with a 14-0 advantage in points off turnovers.

THIRD QUARTER NOTES

·         Despite a slow start to the quarter for the Chargers, the defense held strong and never let the lead slip under 19 which came at the midway point to the quarter.

·         The Chargers only points in the first seven minutes of the period came at the free throw line as McDonald-Perry went 2-for-2 in her lone trip to the stripe.

·         Despite that, New Haven scored the final six of the final eight points of the half to build the lead to 25, while the Purple Knights scored the final basket of the half with one second remaining.

·         Even with the struggles shooting in the third quarter (2-of-11 for the period), the Chargers still outscored the Purple Knights 8-7 to maintain their 20+ point lead.  

FOURTH QUARTER NOTES

·         Coming out of the final intermission, the Chargers would strike first with Hogan connecting on a fastbreak layup to push the lead back to 25. She would match that lead again with 6:21 to play.

·         The Purple Knights responded to that second Hogan basket by scoring six straight to cut the lead to 19, however New Haven answered by scoring six-straight of their own, the first four from Pendleton.

·         Even though Bridgeport closed out the game scoring five of the final seven points, New Haven never saw its lead go under 20 over the final four minutes of the game.

UP NEXT

Following a week break from the court, the Chargers will kickoff a series of three games in five days to close out the first semester. First up in that stretch will be another in-state rivalry as the Blue and Gold welcome the Post University Eagles to the Jeffery P. Hazell Athletics Center on Wednesday, December 18. Opening tip in the cross-conference battle is set for 5:30 p.m. in the first game of a doubleheader with the men's team with all of the action available on NE10 Now on Flo College.