WEST HAVEN, Conn. – Coming off of its holiday break, the New Haven men's basketball team dropped a 79-64 decision to the visiting Adelphi Panthers on Thursday night at the Jeffery P. Hazell Athletics Center. With the decision, New Haven falls to 6-7 on the season and 2-4 in the Northeast-10 Conference.

Leading a set of four New Haven starters in double figures for the night was junior Ethan Simmon (Edison, N.J./St. Joseph Metuchen) who finished with 18 points, connecting on 6-of-11 from the field with a pair of three pointers and going 4-of-5 at the free throw line. The 18 points for Simmon was a season-high and his seventh game of the year in double figures.

Following Simmon in the scoring column was senior Tristian Jeffries (Hillside, N.J./Saint Thomas Aquinas) who finished with 15 points, leading all New Haven scorers from the field going 5-of-7 overall including 2-of-4 from outside the arc and was a perfect 3-of-3 at the free throw line. Rounding out the leading scorers was sophomore Jah'likai King and senior Seth Sharif-Brown (Hackensack, N.J./Hackensack) who each finished with 10.

As a team, New Haven finished the game shooting 41.1 percent from the field, connecting on 23 field goals in 56 attempts, with six of those buckets from outside the arc. The Chargers also finished 12-of-15 from the free throw line while the team teams finished in a 30-30 deadlock in the rebounding battle.

FIRST HALF NOTES

·        After the Panthers came up short on the opening possession of the game, New Haven went the length of the floor to score on its opening possession and followed that with another bucket to take an early 4-0 lead with buckets from King and Simmon.

·        The Panthers didn't wait long to answer back scoring five-straight including the first three of the evening from Tavin Pierre Philippe for the first lead change of the night.

·        Simmon would then go 2-of-3 at the line to flip the score one more time before the Panthers took the lead for good with a four-point run.

·        Adelphi's defense stepped up answering a 9-9 stalemate with a 12-2 rally that ended with a double digit lead at 21-11 with 13 minutes to play before the break.

·        New Haven answered by cutting that deficit in half on two occasions, the second with 8:30 to play before the halftime buzzer.

·        Adelphi answered by back-to-back three point plays, the first the old fashioned way and the second on a bucket from beyond the arc as they regained a nine point lead with 6:33 before the intermission.

·        The Blue and Gold responded with an 8-0 rally to cut the deficit down to a single point with just under five minutes remaining, however the Panthers answered right back scoring six straight to pull back ahead by seven.

·        Over the final three minutes, the teams would play even with Adelphi scoring eight of the final 15 points to take an eight point lead into the break at 43-35.

·        Jeffries led the Chargers in the opening half and was the only player in the game at the break with double figures as he put up 11 on 4-of-5 shooting, including 2-of-3 from beyond the arc.

SECOND HALF NOTES

·        Adelphi came out of the intermission to score the first four points of the half and force a New Haven timeout down 12. The Chargers responded to that deficit by scoring eight straight to pull back within single digits.

·        However, the Panthers wouldn't let up as they answered by scoring seven straight to extend its lead to 15 for the first time.

·        From that point on, the Chargers wouldn't get closer than 12 until under four minutes remained as Adelphi pulled ahead by as much as 17 which came on two occasions, the second of which came with 8:18 remaining.

·        Facing that second 17 point deficit, the Chargers would go on to score 14 of the next 20 points to pull within single digits at nine with 3:25 remaining, however the final basket in that rally from Jeffries was the final for New Haven until the final seconds of the game.

·        In that late stretch, the Panthers scored eight unanswered until Simmon drove to the hoop for the final two points of the night.

UP NEXT

Continuing its first run of the Northeast-10 Conference, the Chargers will head on the road for a weekend meeting with the Bentley Falcons on Sunday, January 5. Opening tip off from the Dana Center against the Falcons is scheduled for 3:30 p.m., following the women's game, with all of the action available live on NE10 Now on Flo College.