Box Score NEW HAVEN, Conn. - Senior
Tylon Smith (Manchester, Conn.) became the Southern Connecticut State men's basketball program's leader in career assists and senior
Luke Houston registered a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds as the No. 11 Owls fell to Bridgeport 66-63 on Wednesday evening. Smith led the Owls with 19 points, sophomore
Michael Mallory (Waterbury, Conn.) added in 14 points and three steals, while junior
Deshawn Murphy (Hamden, Conn.) chipped in 14 points and seven rebounds off the bench. Bridgeport's Devon Elliot led all scorers with 22 points. The Purple Knights improve to 6-3 with the win, while the Owls fall to 8-3.
At the 14:51 mark of the opening half, sophomore
Michael Mallory drained a three-pointer off a Smith assist to give the Owls a 9-2 lead. The assist was the 411th of his career, passing Daryle Breland '80 and TJ Trimboli '00 for first place on the program's career assists list.
Bridgeport closed the half on an 8-0 run over the final 3:03 of the period. Back-to-back threes by Elliot and a dunk by Naqwan Crowell brought the Purple Knights' halftime advantage to 27-24.
UB kept up the pressure coming out of the locker room, extending the run to 22-2 through the first five minutes of the second half to jump out to their largest lead of the game at 41-26. But the Owls would fight back, getting the deficit down to 45-42 by the 7:51 mark following an 18-4 run. Houston had six points during the run, Murphy and Smith had five apiece, and junior
Stefon Williams (Jamaica, N.Y.) had two points.
The Owls got within two points at the 4:06 mark and again with 1:37 to play, but the Purple Knights had an answer, quickly getting the lead back up to seven each time, sparked by three-pointers from Ernest Rouse and Devon Elliot.
Smith hit a pair of free throws with 32 seconds remaining to cut the deficit to 66-61, before grabbing a steal and sinking a fastbreak layup with 22 seconds to go to make the score 66-63. Southern had a chance to tie the game off an in-bounds pass from under UB basket with less than one second remaining, but the ensuing three-point attempt came up empty.
The Owls return to conference play on Sunday afternoon with a 1:30 p.m. start against Le Moyne at Moore Field House.
