Box Score

BRIDGEPORT, Conn. - The Southern Connecticut State men's basketball team won its second straight game to start the 2014-15 season with a 99-78 victory over Bridgeport on Sunday evening. Three Owls had 20+ point performances as senior Luke Houston (Pearl River, N.Y.) led the way with 29 points and eight rebounds, sophomore Michael Mallory (Waterbury, Conn.) had 20 points and eight rebounds, and senior Tylon Smith (Manchester, Conn.) added a double-double with 21 points and 10 assists. Bryce Ellie led the Purple Knights (0-2 overall) with 25 points in the loss, while Willie Williams III added a double-double with 16 points and 13 rebounds.

Houston led a strong SCSU surge out of the gate, scoring the game's first eight points off a fast-break layup and back-to-back threes over the first 1:39. Mallory then added the next five points off a three and a pair of free throws to give the Owls a 13-5 lead.

Midway through the opening half, back-to-back threes from Smith and Houston, followed by a fast-break layup from junior Deshawn Murphy (Hamden, Conn.) upped the Owls lead to 28-11, their largest lead to that point. Bridgeport got it as close as 29-18 with 8:05 to go before the Owls went on a 16-7 run over the next four and a half minutes to increase the lead to 45-25.

With nine seconds until halftime, a layup by junior Jack McCarthy (Wallingford, Conn.) brought the score to 52-31. Houston scored 18 of his points in the first half, including 4-for-8 shooting from beyond the arch. For the game, he shot 58 percent from three-point range, going 7-for-12.

The second half started much like the opening for Southern as Houston drained his fifth three after a pair of Purple Knight free throws.



The teams traded buckets over the next eight minutes, including two threes from junior Desmond Williams (Torrington, Conn.) and one from Murphy before Bridgeport battled back within 14 points at the 12:59 mark. Smith answered with three straight points and Mallory sank another three to up the Southern lead to 72-54 with 11:07 remaining.



Murphy and Mallory each added another three in the final two minutes to bring the Owls lead back to 22 with 1:36 remaining. A McCarthy layup with 1:05 remaining and a pair of Dominic Migliaro (Monroe, Conn.) free throws in the final minute each gave the Owls a 24 point advantage, their largest lead of the night. A three-pointer by UB's Devon Elliot wine nine seconds remaining brought the game to its final score of 99-78.

Southern returns to the court on Wednesday evening at 7:30 p.m. when they travel to Long Island to take on Adelphi in their Northeast-10 Conference opener.