Owls drop Warriors

Michael Costeines – Special to The Southern News –

The Southern Connecticut State men’s basketball team defeated the Merrimack Ravens 73-69 in a NE-10 conference matchup at Moore Field House. Four Owls players contributed in double figures to give the team their tenth win of the season.

Junior Greg Langston guided the Owls with a team high 23 points, including an emphatic rim rattling dunk that ignited the crowd. Langston took off from just inside the foul line, slamming what would be the Owls’ largest lead of the game at 67-51 with four minutes remaining. Langston added a team high four assists to go along with five rebounds.

“This was a big win for us because our conference at the top is in a close race and we need to keep pace,” said Langston, who was honored pre-game for becoming the 25th player in school history with 1000 points.  “We have to take it game by game as this win is only as good as our next game and we can’t overlook anyone.  You like this win, but will quickly move on and go after the next one.”

The first half saw both teams shoot almost dead even from the floor, resulting in a tied halftime score of 32. However, neither team was able to take advantage from behind the arc, as both were combined 3-15 from deep.

In the second half, the Owls used a 14-4 run to put the margin at 47-39 with 12:13 remaining. Sophomore Tylon Smith added 16 points and six rebounds and sophomore Luke Houston knocked down a pair of three-pointers to finish the game with 10 points on 4-8 shooting. Senior Trevon Hamlet chipped in with 14 points on 4-9 from the field and two three-pointers. He also had a team high seven rebounds against a large Merrimack frontcourt.

The four Owls in double figures shot a combined 24-41 from the field, while all other players combined for only four total baskets.

“We scouted their team and knew they had a formidable big man in Mike Clifford,” said Head Coach Mike Donnelly. That was going to be one of the keys to victory for us and I thought we did a pretty good job on him in the entire game. It was a good win that we grinded out.” However, were right in the teeth of our conference schedule so hopefully we can keep building upon these looking forward.”

The Owls held the 6-7, 230- pound Clifford to just 25 minutes due to foul trouble and 12 points. The league’s third leading rebounder and second leader in field goal percentage could only sit and watch late as the Owls held off a late surge by the Ravens, led by Kevin Regan with a team high 19 points.

Defensively, the sixty-nine points allowed by the Owls extended the team’s record to 7-0 when holding an opponent to under 70 points.

“It was a game that we could not overlook and I thought we played pretty well early on in the second half,” said Smith. It’s a game we have to get if we want to get where we want to be and we could not let this one slip away. We have to continue to play better and I know as a team we can defiantly find things we can work on to become more of a complete team.”