SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Other than an opening basket by American International, the New Haven men's basketball team led the entire game as the Blue and Gold rolled to an 86-57 Northeast-10 Conference win over the Yellow Jackets on Saturday afternoon at Butova Gymnasium. With the win, New Haven improves to 4-4 on the season and 2-3 in NE10 action.

With all 10 players in the game finishing with at least two points in the scoring column, New Haven was led by four players in double figures with sophomore guard Jah'Likai King (Newburgh, N.Y./Newburgh Free Academy) topping all with a baker's dozen 13 points. Tristian Jeffries (Hillside, N.J./Saint Thomas Aquinas) followed just behind with a dozen points, while Najimi George (Bridgeport, Conn./Kolbe Cathedral) came off the bench to add 11 and Tarese Morse (Springfield, Mass./Springfield) rounded out the leaders with 10.

As a team, New Haven closed out the game shooting 55.2 percent from the field, connecting on 32-of-58 field goal attempts, with nearly a third of those coming from outside the arc where the Chargers were 13-of-23 for 56.6 percent. The Chargers also finished 9-of-12 at the free throw line and outrebounds the Yellow Jackets by more than 20 boards, taking a 42-20 advantage in that column.

The rebounding efforts for New Haven were balanced across the box score with Ethan Simmon (Edison, N.J./St. Joseph Metuchen) and Ugo Nqachukwu leading the efforts with six apiece. Four players would follow that duo with five rebounds each. Jeffries also led New Haven with five assists along with his 12 points, while finished the game shooting 5-of-6 from the field, including a pair of three pointers. Mohamed Traore (Hyde Park, Mass./Matignon) and Javel Cherry (Poughkeepsie, N.Y./Poughkeepsie) led the individual shooting efforts as each closed out the game a perfect 3-of-3 overall, with all of Traore's from outside the arc and two of Cherry's also from beyond the three point line.

FIRST HALF NOTES

·        American International opened up the scoring for the day with a bucket just nine seconds into the action, but the lead wouldn't last long as New Haven evened the score at two and went on to open up a 6-2 lead before the Yellow Jackets would score again.

·        The first of the 13 three pointers from New Haven came just over five minutes into the game with Jeffries the beneficiary of a King pass, putting the lead at 9-4.

·        Following a bucket about a minute later, the Chargers would go on to score five straight to extend the lead to eight and despite back-to-back hoops from the Yellow Jackets would open that lead into double digits with 8:30 remaining thanks to a pair of free throws from Simmon.

·        That first double figure lead came in the midst of what amounted to be a 19-0 run which concluded with a 33-11 lead following a three pointer from Jeffries. That rally for the Chargers spanned over four minutes of game action.

·        That lead for New Haven came at the five minute mark and from that point forward, the teams would trade buckets for the remainder of the half with the Yellow Jackets striking last before the buzzer to cut their deficit to 19 at the intermission.

·        The 42 first half points for New Haven came from nine different players, with Jeffries and Cherry each leading the way with eight points as he, Traore and George all combined to close out the first half a perfect 7-of-7 from the field.  

SECOND HALF NOTES

·        Coming out of the halftime break, the Chargers reextended their lead back over the 20 point mark with back-to-back baskets from Morse and Simmon doubled up the Yellow Jackets 46-23.

·        New Haven would match that 23 point lead on three more occasions over the next eight minutes as the Chargers maintained the 20+ point advantage until the 11:24 mark.

·        The Yellow Jackets would get no closer than 17 points down the stretch, cutting the deficit to that point with eight minutes remaining.

·        New Haven answered that with an 8-2 run to push its lead back to 23 thank to a fastbreak layup from Jeffries.

·        George and King would then go back-to-back to extend that rally to 13-4 with the final basket a three pointer from King that put the New Haven lead at 78-52.

·        New Haven's largest lead of the afternoon would come at the final buzzer with a Kyle Kearson (West Haven, Conn./West Haven) fastbreak layup the final basket of the game.

UP NEXT

After wrapping up Northeast-10 play for the first half of its season, New Haven will head on the road for three of its final four games before the New Year. First up will be a trip to Lakewood, N.J. and the GCU Wellness Center for a Tuesday night match-up with the Georgian Court Lions. Opening tip off is set for 6:00 p.m. with all of the action set to air live, free of charge, on the CACC Network.