MANCHESTER, N.H. – For the second time in four games sophomore Jah'likai King finished with a season-high 27 points to lead the New Haven men's basketball team as the Chargers dropped a 74-67 road decision to the Southern New Hampshire Penmen. With the decision, New Haven falls to 9-11 on the season and 5-8 in the Northeast-10 Conference.

Kings 27 points came on an 8-of-14 effort from the field, with five of the eight field goals coming from outside the three point arc where he finished 5-of-9. Additionally, he finished 6-of-6 at the free throw line, while dishing out four assists.

Overall, King was one of two Chargers in double figures, joined by Ugo Nwachukwu (Imo State, Nigeria/Springfield Commonwealth Academy) who finished with 10 points on 3-of-5 shooting and 4-of-4 at the free throw line. Following the double figure scorers for New Haven was Seth Sharif-Brown (Hackensack, N.J./Hackensack) who came off the bench to finished with nine points and Ethan Simmon (Edison, N.J./St. Joseph Metuchen) who followed with eight.

As a team, New Haven finished the game shooting 40.7 from the field, connecting on 22 field goals in 54 attempts with nine of the 22 field goals from outside the arc. The Chargers also finished 14-of-17 at the free throw line. The Blue and Gold did close out the game with a 35-34 margin in the rebounding battle with Nwachukwu leading the way with eight boards as nine different players pulled down at least one rebound.

FIRST HALF NOTES

·         After collecting the opening tip won by Nwachukwu for New Haven, King converted the first field goal attempt of the night, a three pointer.

·         The Penmen answered back with an identical shot, however the Chargers would maintain the lead, despite a handful of ties, through the first eight minutes of the game. In that stretch, the Chargers largest lead came with 16:42 to play in the opening half as a three from Simmon provided an 11-7 lead.

·         SNHU managed to knot the score at 13 and 15 before flipping the lead in their favor with a basket that began a 5-0 run and led to a 20-15 lead.

·         The Penmen would maintain that lead the remainder of the opening half, building as much as an eight point advantage which came just inside the five minute mark.

·         A three pointer from King cut the deficit to three with 3:31 remaining, however that would be the final basket of the half for New Haven, while defensively only surrendering one more field goal and heading into the locker room trailing by just seven, 33-26.

SECOND HALF NOTES

·         Coming out of the break, the Penmen scored the first five points to extend their lead into double figures just 48 seconds into the action.

·         SNHU would extend its lead to 14 just over two minutes into the period with that lead proving to be their largest of the night.

·         Simmon answered that 14 point deficit with a three pointer, while King added another and Sharif-Brown converted a long range basket to bring the deficit back to single digits at 50-42 with 11:41 to play.

·         Twice within the final 10 minutes, New Haven managed to cut the deficit down to a single possession, with both of those instances coming on a pair of free throws, the first two from King and the second two from Nwachukwu, coming at the 6:26 mark.

·         The Penmen were able to push their lead back to seven approaching the final minute of play while answering the Chargers baskets in the final minute at the free throw line to secure the win on their home court.

UP NEXT

As they continue a stretch of three-straight weekends with home games, New Haven will return to the Jeffery P. Hazell Athletics Center on Saturday to welcome the Bentley Falcons to West Haven. Tip off against the Falcons is slated for 3:30 p.m., following the women's game, with all of the action scheduled to air live on NE10 Now on Flo College.