NEW HAVEN — They have become the cardiac kids. The Southern Connecticut men’s basketball team has used big comebacks in the past three games, winning two of them, to climb into fourth place in the Northeast-10 Conference standings.
“The comebacks seem to be the trend,” SCSU coach Mike Donnelly said. “We’re in a good stretch and we’ve put ourselves in a good spot.”
Southern’s recent rallies have been unlikely to say the least. On Tuesday the Owls scored just 13 points in the first half at Southern New Hampshire. But, for the second straight game it overcame a double-digit deficit in the second half to pull out a 62-56 victory.

“I really wasn’t that upset with them at halftime,” Donnelly said. “I knew we only had 13 points but we were getting good shots, they just weren’t falling. I just wanted to help out with our spacing and I figured we’d make some shots in the second half.”
SCSU, which leads the NE-10 in scoring averaging 75 points, finished the second half with 49 points. The Owls (12-6, 9-5 NE-10) had three-players in double-digits led by Greg Langston with a double-double of 15 points and 12 rebounds. Trevon Hamlet also had 11 points, nine rebounds and two blocks and Rashamell Vereen added 11 points.
Southern knocked off Stonehill 77-74 on Saturday in a game it trailed by seven with less than four minutes to go. The game prior, SCSU rallied from 16 points down in the second half but dropped an 83-80 decision against NE-10 leading Saint Anselm.
Hamlet, an athletic 6-6 swingman, has been the catalyst for the Owls. He can rebound, defend and is among the top Division II scorers averaging 18.2 points.
“He’s the heart and soul of the team,” Donnelly said. “He’s a great kid. He’s been an anchor defensively. He just leads us in every way.”
Then there’s steady junior Greg Langston, of Stratford, who notched his second double-double of the season the past game.
“He’s unique because he’s a 6-3 guy who’s comfortable with his back to the basket,” Donnelly said.
Luke Houston came to SCSU as a prolific scorer but Donnelly has had to encourage him to shoot more at Southern.
“Sometimes he passes up some open shots but he’s taking it upon himself to become our best perimeter defender,” Donnelly said. Sophomore guard Tylon Smith fills the entire stat sheet and Vereen, a slick guard from Meriden who played for Donnelly three years ago at Post, is averaging 8.2 points and Donnelly said he’s the fastest player in the NE-10.
Donnelly hopes the second half of the schedule will be more favorable to his team. They are 7-2 on the road and 4-4 at home but he expects that mark to improve.
“Hopefully it’s a good thing that we have five games at home in the second half and after (Saturday’s game against) Bentley we have seven games against teams that we’ve already played. It’s going to be a dogfight,” he said.
Interestingly, SCSU is tied in the standings with border rival New Haven, another club in the midst of a renaissance.
“I always say it’s great for everyone involved that New Haven’s has turned their program around too,” said Donnelly, who took over a 2-25 team when he arrived at the school.
“I can’t say enough how great a job Ted (Hotaling) has done at New Haven and if we could both play meaningful games at the end of the season it’s great for the entire area of basketball.”
Southern hosts Bentley on Saturday at the Moore Fieldhouse at 3:30 p.m.

@BillCloutier

NEW HAVEN — University of New Haven guard Jeffery Adkins Jr. is playing this season with a bit of a chip on his shoulder. Being a top member of a team picked 16th in a 16-team conference can do that to you.

Adkins and the Chargers continued to play the Rodney Dangerfield role on Saturday beating rival Southern Connecticut State 61-53 in front of 812 fans at the Moore Fieldhouse.

Eric Anderson led New Haven (7-2 overall, 5-2 Northeast-10) with 14 points and Justin Exum had 12 points and 10 rebounds. Jeremy Williams had 10 points and Sean Harris had nine points and nine rebounds in a balanced Charger effort. Southern was led by Tylon Smith who was 6 for 7 from the floor finishing with 13 points.

“We feel like we can play with anybody in this conference and they don’t give us any respect,” Adkins said. “We wanted to come out and play good defense like we’ve been playing.”

New Haven coach Ted Hotaling isn’t relying on his team’s lack of respect for motivation. He’d prefer to bank on solid defense and rebounding, like the kind they got on Saturday. Facing Southern (5-4, 4-3) and its big three of Greg and Dominique Langston and Trevon Hamlet, the Chargers limited the Owls to 31 percent shooting from the field.

The Owl’s star trio, entering the game averaging a combined 48 points, shot 11 for 45 from the floor and finished with 30 points.

“Coach (Hotaling) told us they’ve got some big scorers but (Ade Barek) locked up Hamlet and we played the Langstons as good as we could.”

Said Hotaling: “We’re a very good defensive team right now. We did what we’ve been doing (defensively), holding teams under 40 percent shooting and under 30 percent from 3-point range and out-rebounding them.

“I wish we could have made a few more shots, but Barek shut down Hamlet who’s one of the best players in the league and he’s done that all year for us.” Continued...

Southern coach Mike Donnelly said his team didn’t play very well.

“I give all the credit to New Haven,” Donnelly said. “They did a great job. But for some reason we were a step slow and that’s my fault.

“This has to motivate us to go catch New Haven. The did a great job on our three guys and they made plays and we didn’t.”

After erasing a 20-13 deficit midway through the first half, the Chargers rarely trailed again. New Haven led 36-30 at the half and opened up a 10-point lead in the early stages of the second half. When Southern cut the margin to 48-46 the Chargers outworked Southern a crucial possession.

New Haven missed three straight shots on the trip but got every offensive board and kicked the ball out to Sean Harris for a wide-open 3-pointer to give the Chargers a 51-46 lead.

“We talk about that all the time and it really hasn’t happened, but it showed up at a good time,” Hotaling said.

But the game was still in doubt in the final minute when Quinnipiac transfer Dominique Langston (10 points on 3 for 15 shooting) finally connected on a long, fadeaway 3-pointer with 58 seconds remaining. Following a Charger turnover, Dominique took the ball the length of the floor but missed an open layup and New Haven capitalized immediately, scoring the final six points to put the game away.

“Dominique’s been struggling shooting,” Donnelly said. “He’s been inconsistent. He can do a lot of things, and he has to understand with him it doesn’t all come down to shooting. He has to do everything else he’s capable of doing.”

The Chargers, which went 8-18 last season, have won four straight.

“Anytime you can beat your rival its’ big,” Hotaling said. “If I said it wasn’t I’d be lying. It’s great to beat them and it’s a league game, too.”