Box Score

WEST HAVEN, Conn. - The No. 2 Southern Connecticut State University men's basketball team lost its first game of the year Wednesday evening 79-66 to the New Haven Chargers. It comes one day after the Owls earned a No. 2 national ranking in the NABC Poll.

With the loss, the Owls fall to 5-1 and 2-1 in the Northeast-10, while UNH improves to 2-4 and 1-3 in the NE-10.



New Haven led for most of the game. It was 47-34 when the Owls went on a 15-3 run to get to within one point. A drive by freshman Joey Wallace (Rochester, N.Y.) and feed to Austin Carter (Bloomfield, Conn.) for a layup cut the lead to six with 11:23 left. Michael Mallory (Waterbury, Conn.) and Isaiah McLeod (Cambridge, Mass.) also came through with three pointers during the run. Mallory would finish the game with 16 points of 5-of-15 shooting.

On the next UNH possession, Michael Bourke came right back with a three of his own. But a block by Carter led to a Wallace three and Desmond Williams (Torrington, Conn.) hit a layup on the next trip down the court to cut the lead to one, 49-50 with 7:45 remaining. He would finish with 18 points on 6-of-21 shooting, easily his worst shooting percentage of the young season.

UNH would not allow Southern Connecticut to take the lead, and used layups, threes and free throws to outscore the Owls 29-17 in the final 7:21 to close out the game.

Overall, the Owls shot 24-of-75 from the field (32-percent) and 7-of-30 (23-percent) from three-point range. Southern Connecticut's previous season lows in those categories were 45-percent and 30-percent, respectively.

The first half was similar to the second for SCSU. The Owls got off to a quick 10-3 start but UNH went on an 18-0 run over a four and a half minute span to take a 21-10 lead with 11 minutes left. Southern went 0-for-9 from the field over that span.

Mallory started 0-for-5 from the field and 0-for-3 from three but made his last two field goals of the half. Desmond Williams finished the first half 3-of-12 from the field.

The Owls cut the lead to eight with under thirty second remaining, but UNH's Levy Gillespie hit a runner in the lane with two seconds remaining to give the Chargers a ten point lead at the break, 35-25.

Southern Connecticut shot 12-of-35 from the field (28.6-percent) and 0-of-10 from three in the first half.

The Owls return to action Saturday at 3:30 p.m. when they host Saint Rose.