WEST HAVEN, Conn. – The New Haven women's basketball team racked up 30 points in the fourth quarter and had five starters finish the game in double figures as the Blue and Gold surged to a 69-60 win over the visiting Southern New Hampshire Penmen on Wednesday evening at the Hazell Athletics Center. With the win, New Haven improves to 5-1 on the season and 3-1 in the Northeast-10 Conference.

With all but 11 of the 69 total points coming from its starting five, New Haven was led by senior guard Charlotte Bassett (Glastonbury, Conn./Glastonbury) who closed out the game with 17 points, 12 of which came in the second half including nine in the fourth quarter alone. Also closing out the fourth quarter with nine points was transfer forward Paige Cote (Sanford, Maine/Sanford) who finished the game with 13 points total.

Joining Bassett and Cote in double figures for the game was junior guard Lindsay Hogan (Bayville, N.Y./Locust Valley) with 15 and transfer guard Aniya McDonald-Perry (Middletown, Conn./Putnam Science Academy) with 11. Leading the Chargers off the bench was freshman guard Schuyler Coles (Harrisburg, Pa./Susquehanna Township) who finished with six points.

Among all the leading scorers, Bassett led the team with a 5-of-10 effort, including three of those five from outside the three point arc. She also finished a perfect 4-of-4 at the free throw line. Hogan's 15 points came on 7-of-18 shooting, with one three pointer. As a team, New Haven finished the game shooting 39.3 percent from the field, connecting on 24-of-61 field goal attempts, while they were also 16-of-20 at the free throw line, including 8-of-10 in the fourth quarter to ice the victory.

New Haven also won the battle of the boards with a commanding 47-29 lead as nine different players contributed in the rebounding battle. Leading the efforts was Bassett who pulled down nine boards, while she also added an assist and a steal. McDonald-Perry followed with eight rebounds.

COACHES QUOTES

"Gutsy game and comeback. We had all of our bigs in foul trouble and had to go small. Southern New Hampshire is a very good rebounding team and we out rebounded them by 18. Our bench really stepped up tonight especially Eveani [Okwusa]. Paige had a great post presence that helped us seal the game. 5-1 start!"

FIRST QUARTER NOTES

·        The Chargers got out to a quick early lead, scoring the first five points of the evening before SNHU got on the board three minutes into the action.

·        New Haven never relinquished the lead the entirety of the first quarter, despite allowing a pair of stalemates in the final seconds, including a 16-16 draw at the first intermission.

·        The largest lead of the quarter for New Haven was five which came on a number of occasions, the last of which was with 4:14 remaining as McDonald-Perry converted the second of a pair at the line.

·        The Chargers final points of the quarter came with 90 seconds remaining on a layup from Merit Innocent (Delta State, Nigeria/Busche Academy). The Penmen tied the score with their final bucket with 30 seconds remaining.

SECOND QUARTER NOTES

·        The Chargers once again opened up the quarter with the first points, this time the first seven and they would once again not relinquish that lead until the final 30 seconds as the Penmen took the slim 30-29 lead into the halftime break.

·        That early seven point lead, which came thanks to a Hogan layup as she drove the baseline, was the largest of the frame for New Haven. The Chargers would get the lead back to six on a pair of free throws from Coles with four minutes remaining.

·        Hogan would also net the final basket for the Chargers as they mustered just one more field goal in the final four minutes with the Penmen closing out the half with nine of the final 11 points.

·        At the break, New Haven was led by Hogan with nine points as she tied for the game-high in the first half. Following her was Coles who came off the bench for six points.

THIRD QUARTER NOTES

·        Southern New Hampshire maintained the momentum it closed out the first half with, opening up a double figure lead, as much as 12, and led through the full 10 minute quarter.

·        It would take more than six minutes before the Penmen were able to open that lead into double figures with their largest lead coming with three minutes remaining. New Haven answered that deficit with a three pointer from Bassett, which at the time broke an almost five minute stretch without a field goal.

·        Okwuosa would add another three before the end of the period, while Cote closed out the period with a pair of free throws to cut the deficit to eight, 50-42, at the quarter break.

FOURTH QUARTER NOTES

·        The Chargers kept that late third quarter momentum into the final period as they opened things up scoring nine of the first 13 points in the period to cut the deficit to three and force a Southern New Hampshire timeout.

·        The Penmen would manage to push their lead back to six before the Chargers defense kicked in and held SNHU to just one point over the final 5:31. In that stretch, the Penmen would go 0-of-5 from the field and turn the ball over twice.

·        In that same stretch, the Chargers closed out the game scoring 16 of the final 17 points.

·        Hogan would net back-to-back layups just shy of a minute apart that flipped the score for the final time with the lead change coming at the three minute mark. The Penmen would follow that with their only point in that stretch on the second of two at the line to tie the score at 60.

·        New Haven kept the pressure on with a McDonald-Perry layup putting the lead back in its favor while the five points came at the line as the Chargers went 5-of-6 in the final 58 seconds to secure the victory.

UP NEXT

New Haven will close out a stretch of five-straight NE10 games when they next take the court on the road with a visit to the Bay State and the birth place of basketball, Springfield. The conference match-up against the American International Yellow Jackets is set for Saturday, December 7 with opening tip set for 1:30 p.m. in the first game of a doubleheader with the men's team. All of the action from Butova Gymnasium is set to air live on NE10 Now on Flo College.