WEST HAVEN, Conn. – The University of New Haven men’s basketball team finished Wednesday’s game on a 10-2 run to rally past Northeast-10 foe Saint Michael’s, 66-63. Eric Anderson (Newark, N.J./Newark Tech) scored a career-high 23 points to lead the Chargers to their 10th consecutive victory.
New Haven (11-5, 8-4 NE-10) last put together a winning streak of 10 games or more in the 2002-03 season (11), and this year’s run is the 11th double-digit win streak in program history.
Anderson connected on his first 10 shots from the field en route to 23 points and added 12 rebounds and five assists – the first Charger to lead the team in all three categories since Robert Jamerson (22 pts., 6 rebs., 3 assts.) did so against Adelphi on Feb. 23, 2011. The double-double is Anderson’s 10th of the season and the nation’s fifth-most prolific rebounder grabbed 10 or more boards for the 12th consecutive game.
Jeremy Williams (Silver Spring, Md./Springbrook) drained the go-ahead three-pointer with 48.7 seconds left and scored 16 total points in the second half to finish with 22 tallies. The Chargers’ senior co-captain, who dropped 26 points in Saturday’s victory over Southern New Hampshire, knocked down six treys for the second straight game. Jeffery Adkins (Piscataway, N.J./Piscataway) added 13 points for New Haven.
Corey Crawford scored a team-high 16 points for the Purple Knights (5-11, 2-10 NE-10).
The Chargers went on the first run of the game, opening a 20-12 lead on a corner jumper from Joshua Guddemi (Nottingham, England/Derby) with 7:26 to go. At that point, the visiting Purple Knights controlled the action to regain 29-28 advantage in the closing 90 seconds of the stanza. Anderson’s seventh bucket of the half put New Haven back on top, as the hosts headed to the locker room holding a 30-29 advantage.
Midway through the second half, Saint Michael’s battled to gain a nine-point lead at 52-43 – the largest deficit that the Chargers have faced during their 10-game winning streak. Williams ended the run with a triple and later sank a jumper to cap an 11-2 run and knot the score at 54-54. However, the visitors scored eight of the next 10 points to claim a 62-56 advantage with 2:23 left.
On the ensuing Charger possession, Williams skied for an offensive rebound and was fouled in the process. The senior hit both free throws to cut the lead to four and, after a stop on the other end, buried a deep trey to cut the lead to one point at 62-61 with 1:28 remaining. The Chargers’ defense came up with another stop and once again it was Williams draining the big shot. His three-pointer with 48.7 seconds to play put New Haven on top with a lead that it would not relinquish.
After a Purple Knights’ free throw cut the lead to one point, Anderson drained a pair from the line and a desperation trey at the horn was off the mark as the Chargers locked up a 66-63 win.
Cyrus James (Manchester, Conn./Howell Cheney Tech) scored four points, and Guddemi and Ashanti DePass (Baldwin, N.Y./Baldwin) added two apiece to round out the Chargers’ scoring.
Each team hauled in 31 rebounds with 11 offensive rips, but New Haven held a decisive 20-13 advantage in second-chance points. Both squads committed nine turnovers.
The Chargers will now hit the road for a Northeast-10 meeting at perennial region power Bentley. Tip-off from the Dana Center is set for 3:30 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 26. New Haven will head to Saint Anselm on Tuesday, Jan. 29 before action returns to Charger Gymnasium on Saturday, Feb. 2 for a 1:30 visit from Massachusetts Lowell.
