WEST HAVEN, Conn. – With all five of his field goals from outside the three point arc, the New Haven men's basketball team was led by Ethan Simmon (Edison, N.J./St. Joseph Metuchen) who finished with 17 points as the Blue and Gold dropped a 81-67 decision to the visiting Southern New Hampshire Penmen. With the decision, New Haven falls to 3-4 on the season, 1-4 in the Northeast-10 Conference.

All 10 of the Chargers players who saw time during the game finished with at least three points, while Simmon was one of just two players to finish in double figures, joined by Seth Sharif-Brown (Hackensack, N.J./Hackensack) who finished with 10. Among the leading scorers, Simmon led the way going 5-of-12 from the field overall, 5-of-9 from beyond the arc.

As a team, New Haven finished the game shooting 46.0 percent from the field, connecting on 23-of-50 overall, with more than half of those coming from outside the arc, 14-of-33. The Chargers also dropped the battle of the boards, with Sharif-Brown and Ugo Nwachukwu (Imo State, Nigeria/Springfield Commonwealth Academy) leading the team with five each.

FIRST HALF NOTES

·        New Haven opened the scoring with Tarese Morse (Springfield, Mass./Springfield) netting the opening bucket 29 seconds after the opening tip.

·        The teams would seesaw back-and-forth over the next 12 minutes before the Penmen began to pull away, opening up a nine point lead as its largest of the half.

·        The final tie of the half came at 25-25 with 7:37 to play before the break with a three pointer from Kyle Kearson (West Haven, Conn./West Haven) knotting the score for the fourth time.

·        From that point, the Penmen closed out the half scoring 14 of the final 21 points to take a 39-32 lead into the intermission.

·        The Chargers final bucket of the half came from Sharif-Brown, a second-change tip-in, while he closed out the half with the final four points in the opening frame, the final two coming on a perfect trip to the line.

SECOND HALF NOTES

·        Coming out of the intermission, the teams traded the first two buckets before the Penmen opened up a double digit lead and never relinquished it. After that opening field foal for the Chargers, the Penmen scored 14 of the next 17 points to open up an 18 point lead less than five minutes into the half.

·        Southern New Hampshire opened up its largest lead of 19 on two occasions with the Chargers answering that deficit by rattling off 10 of the next 12 to cut the lead to 11 with three-and-a-half minutes to play.

·        After a two minute drought for both teams, the Penmen answered with a three pointer with 1:19 to play to put the game out of reach.

·        Simmon led the Chargers in the second half, finishing with 11 points as he went 3-of-6 from beyond the arc and 2-of-2 at the line.

UP NEXT

New Haven will close out its first semester play in the Northeast-10 Conference when they next step on the hardwood, visiting the American International Yellow Jackets on Saturday, December 7. Opening tip from Butova Gymnasium is slated for 3:30 p.m. in the second game of a doubleheader with the women's team, while all of the action is scheduled to be carried live on NE10 Now on Flo College.