SYRACUSE, N.Y. – A 22-point, 12-rebound performance from Eric Anderson (Newark, N.J./Newark Tech) guided the University of New Haven men’s basketball team to a five-point lead midway through the second half at Le Moyne on Saturday, but the host Dolphins rallied down the stretch to take a 71-58 decision.
With the loss, the Chargers fall to 1-5 overall and 0-4 in the Northeast-10. Le Moyne evens its overall and conference record to 2-2.
Anderson’s double-double is his third of the 2012-13 campaign. The sophomore went 10-for-15 from the field and also picked up three steals and a blocked shot. Jeffery Adkins (Piscataway, N.J./Piscataway) and Justin Exum (Brooklyn, N.Y./Xaverian) also tallied double figures with 12 and 11 points, respectively.
As a unit, the Chargers shot 23-for-56 (41.1 percent) from the field, 3-for-15 (20 percent) from three-point range and 9-for-10 (90 percent) from the free throw line. Cyrus James added eight points, Jeremy Williams (Silver Spring, Md./Springbrook) had three and Ashanti DePass (Baldwin, N.Y./Baldwin) sank a pair of foul shots to round out the New Haven scoring.
The Chargers were outrebounded, 35-25, and lost the turnover battle by a slight 17-16 margin.
Le Moyne got a game-high 28 points as well as seven rebounds from Jim Janson.
New Haven overcame a four-point deficit and briefly led by as many as seven points in a tightly-contested first half that featured five lead changes. The final lead change came on a Janson bucket with 48 seconds to go that sent the Chargers into the locker room trailing, 36-34.
An early 5-0 spurt pushed New Haven back into the lead, 43-41, early in the second frame. After the score was knotted once again at 45-45, a three-pointer from Exum and a pair of DePass free throws gave the Chargers a five-point advantage at 50-45 with 9:23 to play. However, the Blue and Gold went cold at that point as Le Moyne netted the next 19 points to take a 64-50 lead while holding the Chargers scoreless for a span of 7:13. The Chargers’ ended their scoring drought with eight points over the final 2:10, but the Dolphins shot 7-for-10 from the charity stripe during the stretch the close out the 71-58 final.
The Chargers return home after a three-game road swing to host American International on Tuesday, Dec. 4 at 7:30 p.m. Southern Connecticut State then travels to Charger Gymnasium on Saturday, Dec. 8 for another NE-10 meeting with New Haven’s cross town rival. The three-game, pre-holiday home stand concludes on Wednesday, Dec. 19 in a non-conference game against Concordia (N.Y.).
