NEW HAVEN, CONN--Sophomore guard Spencer Braithwaite (Dorchester, MA) shot 8-of-13, including 4-of-5 from beyond the arc, in scoring a game-high 26 points as the American International College men's basketball team (8-16, 6-14 NE-10) defeated conference rival University of New Haven (14-10, 10-10 NE-10), 64-57, in a Northeast-10 matchup.
The first half was a back-and-forth affair, with the lead changing hands eight times and four tie scores over the course of the first twenty minutes. The Chargers, however, took the lead late, building to a six point advantage as sophomore guard Jeffrey Adkins (Piscataway, N.J.) drained a three with forty seconds left in the frame. Adkins would finish with a team-best 15 points and four assists.
However, the Yellow Jackets took advantage of key mistakes by the Chargers in the second half. They scored the first three baskets of the frame in the first three minutes, tying the game on a jumper by graduate forward Anthony Thomas (Baltimore, MD) with seventeen minutes to go. The teams battled for the next ten minutes, but then with 6:55 remaining, sophomore guard D.J. Gutridge (Neptune, N.J.) hit a three-pointer that permanently put the Yellow Jackets on top.
New Haven got no second-chance points in the final half of the game, while getting outscored 16-8 in the paint and allowing 11 points off of turnovers. The Jackets shot 57.1 percent in the second half, going 12-for-21 as a team, while holding the Chargers to just 32.0 percent, at 8-of-25.
AIC also got 19 points from their bench during the game, 10 of which were scored by sophomore forward David Campbell (Boston, MA). In total, Braithwaite had 26 points, four rebounds and six assists, and nine points from graduate guard Sesoo Ikpah (Williamstown, N.J.). Five players had a team-high four rebounds; the game high in rebounds went to Chargers freshman guard Eric Anderson (Newark, N.J.) who scooped up 16.
The Yellow Jackets return to action Saturday, February 18, when they head to Albany, New York to take on conference foe Saint Rose. The game tips off at 3:30 PM.