By Nick Rosa
Central Connecticut men’s basketball team had a tough loss last Thursday night at home falling to in-conference rivals the Monmouth Hawks 58-56 in overtime.
Senior Ken Horton posted his ninth double-double of the season in a 16 point 11 rebound effort. This marks CCSU’s first loss at home this season in Northeast Conference play.
The Blue Devils drop to and 9-10 overall record and 6-3 in-conference record while the Hawks improve to 5-17 and 3-6 overall record in the NEC. CCSU went on to improve in both overall and conference records after Saturday’s win against Fairleigh Dickinson at home.
This was a defensive game from the start, with the Hawks defense just a bit better this night than the Blue Devils. CCSU out-rebounded the Hawks 33-26, led by Horton’s 11 and nine on the defensive front, but they turned the ball over 18 times, leading to 17 Monmouth points.
“We needed to make some good defensive stands, we didn’t. That’s what it comes down to,” said Head coach Howie Dickenman. “We have the best defensive team guarding the three. We hold teams to 29 percent and they came in here and drilled us 11-24.”
Jesse Steele led the Hawks with a team-high 12 points and 4-10, 40 percent, from beyond the arc. Dickenman said Steele was shooting about 26 percent from beyond the arc this year, so he would have one of those nights. Last year he shot 44 percent.
At the half the Hawks led the Blue Devils 22-20. CCSU went to the locker room only down two but had some sloppy play in the first half. Monmouth also had some trouble shooting but was able to stop CCSU during the first 20 minutes.
The Hawks in the first half shot 40 percent from the field and 57.1 percent from beyond the arc, while Central shot 31.8 % from the field and 28.6 % from the 3-point line.
The Blue Devils had some solid bench help going 3-5 from the field in their few minutes of play. The bench didn’t get as many minutes as they did last home game against Bryant, but were still able to produce. The Hawks bench played a much bigger role in their production outscoring CCSU 22-14.
The Blue Devils were able to take advantage of their fouls, going 90 percent from the line, while Monmouth was only 69.2 percent.
The second half was much stronger for CCSU, shooting 46.2 percent from the field while Monmouth only shot 36.4 percent. The big thing, once again, was the three-point shooting where Monmouth 43.8 percent to CCSU’s 20 percent.
CCSU outscored Monmouth 28-26 in the second half.
Tensions were high with 0.5 seconds left on the clock with the Hawks inbounding with a tie game, but a full-court throw ended in a CCSU interception which sent the game into overtime all tied up at 48 apiece.
Heading into overtime, Monmouth led by four after a quick 6-0 run, taking a 54-50 lead. Central fought back to tie the game at 56 with 46 seconds to play on a pair of free-throws by Horton.
The Hawks answered back with a pair of free-throws by Mike Myers Keitt with 14 seconds to play, taking the 58-56 lead, which ultimately finished the Blue-Devils.
Freshman Kyle Vinales missed a lay-up and the Hawks rebounded. This forced CCSU to foul with 1.3 seconds remaining against Monmouth’s Austin Tillotson, who missed his free throw.
After a time-out CCSU threw the ball down court in hope of a last second shot, but was caught by Monmouth which sealed their victory.
Vinales added 15 points, three rebounds and four assists, while senior Robby Ptacek had 11 points, four rebounds and four assists in the loss. Ptacek went 5-5 from the free throw line, just adding to one of the nation’s best percentages of 93.7 percent in 95 attempts.
“We gotta put this behind us. The past is the past,” said Dickenman. “Everyone contributed to the loss, this is about a team loss, no individual lost this game,” he added.
The Blue Devils have a tough and challenging schedule ahead with eight conference games in a row. CCSU will be back in action Thursday February 2 on the road against Saint Francis (N.Y.) at 7 p.m.
