It was a busy two weeks for Central Connecticut’s men’s basketball team, including trips to Jamaica and California, as well as two home games. All in all, the Blue Devils won three of their five contests, with the exception of two, two-point losses on the road.

The leader of the team was senior forward Tyler Kohl, who averaged 22.2 points, 7.8 rebounds and 5.5 assists in the five-game span, leading the team in scoring in all five. Kohl was named Northeast Conference player of the week for his efforts.

But what Marshall believes makes this team different from last year is their options outside of Kohl. Freshman Ian Krishnan has continued to impress, scoring 22 points against UMass Lowell and leading the team with 20 points against Austin Peay.

Following a slow start, junior forward, Joe Hugley had reached double-digits in each of the last four games, including a season-high 22 in a loss to Loyola Marymount.

Junior forward Jamir Coleman scored 19 points against Florida A&M and is shooting nearly 70 percent from three on the season.

“It’s good because ‘who do you prepare for?’ If you look in the past, year one it was if you take Austin away, where do we get our points from? Year two, if we take Tyler away, who can beat you? This year, we have other guys who can actually score,” Marshall said.

“Last year, not to knock any of those guys, it was hard because we really didn’t have too many guys, besides myself, that can go get a bucket,” Kohl said following the UMass Lowell game. “Really everybody can create for themselves. Now we’re like eight, nine, 10 deep.”

But one issue that plagued the Blue Devils over the span was surrendering big leads. Against Austin Peay, they had a nine-point lead with six minutes remaining in the first half. But the Governors went on a 17-8 during that time, heading to the half tied at 39. The Blue Devils were unable to pull away in the second half, leading to the two-point loss.

But it wasn’t just losses where they could not maintain leads. In the UMass Lowell contest, they led by 17 at the half and by 22 early in the second, but the Riverhawks cut it to 12 in six minutes. They again found themselves up 20 with four minutes remaining, but the Riverhawks ended the game on an 8-0 run.

“We settled. We got up 22 and we thought they were going to old. Good teams don’t do that,” Marshall said following the game. “We’ve got to play all 40 minutes.”

Their 14-point win against Florida A&M was not characteristic of the dominance, as they led by 20 multiple times.

They even struggled in the second half against Division III opponent Pine Manor, who went on a 17-4 run out of the gate.

“You have to realize when you’re on the other end when you’re down, you’re going to try to come out with a sense of urgency,” Marshall said of the performance. “Other teams are going to do that to you as well. If you want to be a championship-caliber team, you’ve got to come out there at the half the same way you did as the start of the game.”

The Blue Devils will be back in action when they travel to North Carolina A&T on Thursday where they will look to defeat the Aggies for the second year in a row. They will then travel to Virginia Tech looking to upset the ACC opponent.