After a tough loss to the Bentley Falcons on Saturday, Jan. 27, New Haven hosted the Assumption Greyhounds on Tuesday hoping to break their four-game losing streak. Despite a rally from the Chargers and a high shooting percentage in the beginning of the game, they fell short with a final score of 70-60.
The score, according to head coach Debbie Buff, did not reflect the team’s effort.
“I thought collectively we went deep and I thought everybody came in ready to play,” said Buff. “I thought we locked into scouts, again we shared the ball, three people in double figures. We hit nine threes which is a high all season, so we are not the same team. I don’t think the record always shows how much we’ve improved, but I’m really happy with our effort.”
Struggling on defense from the start, New Haven had eight turnovers with only 25 rebounds. With a four-point deficit in the first quarter, the Chargers started the second half of the game trailing by 15 points with the score at 43-28.
Guard Charlotte Bassett led New Haven with 17 points and finished the game shooting 6-of-8 from the field. Bassett’s offensive dominance included going 3-for-4 at the three-point arc and 2-for-2 at the line. She tallied four rebounds and a set of assists.
“I think we just need to make shots for sure,” said Bassett. “I think we showed that today we score a little more than we have in the past games, so just scoring and keeping up on the defensive end.”
Following shortly behind was forward Makaela Jonhson who added 14 points, three rebounds and three assists. Forward Aurora Deshaies also finished with double digits in the points column, added five assists and eight rebounds. Deshaies has been dominant at the rim as she added to her conference lead in rebounds with 10.4 per game.
New Haven attempted to close the leading gap held by Assumption but were unable to mount a comeback. Guard Lindsay Hogan went 2-for-3 from beyond the arc and ended the game shooting 3-for-8. In addition to contributing eight points for the Chargers, Hogan had four rebounds and one assist. Guard Nayeli Dowding followed up with seven points and added four rebounds and three assists. Forward Bianca Pendleton went 2-for-3 with a single rebound.
Against Assumption’s 52% shooting from the field, New Haven finished the game shooting 38.9%. In the second quarter, the Chargers shot 28.57%, behind the Greyhound’s 69.23% at the end of the first half.
After an offensive struggle in the second half, Johnson said, “Well, we just need to learn how to put the ball in the basket. Once we start doing that, I think a lot of our games will be a lot closer.”
New Haven has shown improvement since facing Assumption for the first time back in November, where the Chargers faced a heavy loss to the Greyhounds at 70-41.
After the loss to Assumption, the Chargers now have an overall record of 6-12 and fell to 2-12 in conference play. New Haven will start a short road trip, traveling to Manchester, N.H. to play the Southern New Hampshire Penmen starting at 1:30 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 3 at the Stan Spirou Field House. For more information on upcoming games, please visit NewHavenChargers.com.
