SPRINGFIELD, Mass. – Behind four starters in double figures, the New Haven women's basketball team erased a halftime deficit to outscore American International by 13 in the second half all en route to a 79-71 road win over the Yellow Jackets on Saturday afternoon at Butova Gymnasium. With the victory, New Haven improves to 6-1 overall for the season and 4-1 in the Northeast-10 Conference. The 6-1 start for the Chargers is their best start to a season since the 2019-20 campaign where they opened up the year 10-1.

Leading the Blue and Gold on the day was point guard Sabira Ahayeva (Minsk, Belarus/Minsk #27) who finished with 17 points and dished out eight assists to bolster the Chargers offense. Joining her with 17 points on the day was senior Charlotte Bassett (Glastonbury, Conn./Glastonbury) while junior Lindsay Hogan (Bayville, N.Y./Locust Valley) was tied for the game-high in the scoring column with 18 points. Rounding out the Chargers leading scorers was Aniya McDonald-Perry (Middletown, Conn./Putnam Science Academy) who finished with 11 points.

Transfer forward Paige Cote (Sanford, Maine/Sanford) finished just behind her fellow four in the starting lineup with nine points as the Chargers starting five provided all but seven of the 79 total points, with the lone bench points coming from Schuyler Coles (Harrisburg, Pa./Susquehanna Township) (four) and Nayeli Dowding (Baldwin, N.Y./Baldwin) (three). As a team, The Chargers finished the day shooting an even 50 percent from the field, connecting on 25-of-50 field goal attempts, with 10 of those 25 buckets from outside the three point arc where the Chargers shot 55.6 percent. The Blue and Gold also capitalized at the free throw line where they finished 19-of-21 as a team.

Individually, McDonald-Perry and Cote led the Chargers with McDonald-Perry closing out the day shooting 5-of-7 and Cote connecting on 4-of-6 field goal attempts. Bassett led the Chargers from outside the arc where she was 3-of-6, with those three part of five total baskets. She also finished a perfect 4-of-4 at the line, while Ahayeva led the Chargers at the line going a perfect 8-of-8 while all three of her made buckets came from beyond the arc.

As a team, New Haven also led the battle of the board with a 37-27 margin, led by Bassett who finished with eight boards. Cote followed with seven and Hogan just behind her with a half dozen. Overall, all but one of the nine players who saw time finished with at least one rebound.

COACHES QUOTES

"Great second half against a very athletic AIC team. We shared the ball very well and out-rebounded them by 10. Playing multiple defenses worked today for us. Bench energy and road energy was amazing. Sab [Sabira Ahayeva (Minsk, Belarus/Minsk #27)] was huge for us as our quarterback with 17 points and 8 assists."

FIRST QUARTER NOTES

·        New Haven came out of the games strong, scoring on the opening possession with a layup from McDonald-Perry coming just 20 seconds into the action with Ahayeva dishing her first assist of the afternoon on the bucket.

·        That early lead would be short lived as the Yellow Jackets answered right back with back-to-back three-point buckets to take a four point lead and they would keep that lead the remainder of the opening quarter.

·        Just over four minutes into the action, the Chargers cut the Yellow Jackets lead down to a single point on a Bassett bucket that came off a AIC turnover with Bianca Pendleton (Accokeek, Md./New Hope Academy) securing the steal.

·        New Haven would muster just two more baskets the remainder of the quarter, with the final a layup from McDonald-Perry that cut the deficit to a pair. From that point, the Yellow Jackets closed out the first quarter scoring six unanswered to take an eight point lead into the break.

SECOND QUARTER NOTES

·        New Haven would once again net the first points of the half, this time around though it took 75 seconds to get on the board with Coles connecting on a jumper thanks to the pass from McDonald-Perry.

·        Just like the opening quarter, the Yellow Jackets would respond to that first UNH basket with back-to-back three pointers, this time around it allowed them to extend their lead to 12, 26-14.

·        New Haven answered that dozen deficit by scoring back-to-back baskets, both from Hogan, however AIC was able to rebuild a double digit lead, hitting as much as 13 points.

·        Trailing once again by a dozen with 3:17 remaining before the halftime break, New Haven would close out the second quarter scoring the final seven point, cutting the deficit down to five at the intermission.

·        During that same stretch, New Haven's defense forced three turnovers and held the Yellow Jackets without a bucket in three attempts before the quarter ended.

THIRD QUARTER NOTES

·        Just like the first two periods, New Haven struck first on a layup from McDonald-Perry but unlike those quarters, the Chargers kept that early momentum and quickly erased the deficit and put the game back in their favor.

·        That opening basket kicked off a 10 point rally, flipping the script as they held the Yellow Jackets off the scoreboard for nearly three minutes.

·        The bucket that broke that momentum for the Chargers would end up being the only one for the Yellow Jackets until the three minute mark, with New Haven extending that early streak to as much as 18-3 and opening up a 10 point lead with five minutes remaining in the period.

·        AIC looked to erase that lead but could only cut its deficit to four points before the Chargers closed out the third period on an 11-3 run to take a 57-45 lead into the final intermission.

·        The final three baskets in the third for New Haven, which all came in the final 57 seconds of action, all came from beyond the three point arc with Hogan netting the first and Ahayeva going back-to-back in a 30 seconds span to end the quarter.

FOURTH QUARTER NOTES

·        The Chargers kept their hot third quarter shooting intact going into the fourth with Bassett hitting from beyond the arc to extend the lead to 15.

·        Overall for the quarter, the Chargers would shoot 67 percent, 4-of-6, however they would extend that shooting success to the free throw line where they connected on 13-of-14 at the stripe to secure the win.

·        The largest lead for New Haven came at the midway point of the quarter when Cote connected on a jumper outside of the paint thanks to a pass from Ahayeva, which would end up being her eighth and final of the day.

·        That basket from Cote would prove to be the final of the game for New Haven, however the success at the free throw line would not allow AIC to get any closer than eight points and would help maintain the double figure lead into the final seconds of the game when the Yellow Jackets connected on a three pointer at the buzzer to set the final margin at 79-71.

UP NEXT

After wrapping up its conference action for the first half of the season, New Haven will step away from NE10 play as they close out the calendar year with four non-conference games. First up will be the battle of I-95 as the Chargers welcome the Bridgeport Purple Knights to West Haven on Wednesday, December 11 with a 6:00 p.m. tipoff on the docket. All of the action from the Hazell Athletics Center is set to air live on NE10 Now on Flo College.