by Dillon Meehan
The Central Connecticut Men’s Basketball team had both of their comeback attempts fall short this past week after dropping back to back home losses against Maine and Binghamton.
The Blue Devils (0-5) have yet to find their first win of the season, with three of their five losses coming by nine points or less. It is safe to safe that once again, this team is having issues with close games.
This past Tuesday against Binghamton, junior guard Khalen Cumberlander and senior forward Brandon Peel continued to be the lone bright spots for the Blue Devils.
Following his phenomenal performance in the home opener, Cumberlander finished with 18 points and four assists. Peel had 12 points and 13 rebounds, for his third double-double of the season.
Freshman Austin Nehls, who had flashes of brilliance this season, was able to find a rhythm and scored a career-high 17 points off of the bench. Making five of seven shots from beyond the arch.
The Blue Devils trailed by one following the first half and despite coming out strong for the final 20 minutes, the Binghamton Bearcats hit their first six three-pointers of the second half to go on a 15-3 lead.
The Blue Devils had an opportunity to comeback, a 9-0 run late in the game to make it 63-62 – but once again, CCSU failed to capitalize on their opportunities and once again failed to deliver in the closing moments of a game.
History repeated itself over the weekend, when CCSU hosted the Maine Black Bears.
Nehls and Cumberland continued their fine stretch of play, both led the team in scoring with 15 points. It was the third time in five games that Cumberlander has led the team in scoring.
CCSU found themselves trailing by double digits midway through the second half, but a couple of great plays by Cumberlander and Nehls gave the Blue Devils the lead with 4:34 left to play in the game.
Like clockwork, CCSU’s inability to score in late game situations returned as they were held without a field goal for the final two minutes of the game.
While there is not a singular reason for these issues to be consistently happening on a regular basis, a large part of the blame can be put on coaching. Often times the Blue Devils rely on isolation plays in the closing moments of the game, which was one of the key reasons for their defeat in double overtime against Hartford.
However, the blame needs to be shared by the players as well. Coaches are not going to always make the right call and the players still have to go out and occasionally improvise. Following a 5-26 season that saw the Blue Devils lose 14 games by single digits, there are changes that need to be made. But at the moment, it appears as though the answers are not clear.