Things were looking up for Central Connecticut’s men’s basketball team when they won their first two Northeast Conference games against Fairleigh Dickinson and Mount St. Mary’s, putting them at .500 in conference play.

But two home losses against Saint Francis (PA) and Robert Morris, head coach Donyell Marshall says his team is no longer playing together.

The Blue Devils hung with the preseason favorite Red Flash, leading throughout and being tied with just nine minutes remaining in regulation. But they would go on a prolific scoring drought, failing to score in a seven-minute span. By that time, they faced a nine-point deficit. They were unable to overcome this, leading to the 80-69 defeat.

Marshall said after the game that the team went from playing as a team to playing as individuals.

“We couldn’t do anything right. It was about ‘me’ defensively, it was about ‘me’ offensively. It was about me. Nothing went right in the last eight minutes,” Marshall said.

He added the drought was sparred by an unnamed player complaining about not getting the ball.

“When we were playing together as a team, we were up,” Marshall continued. “We were up five, we were up eight. And then when it turned into ‘me,’ because someone bi**hed and complained they didn’t get the ball, then everybody else started to bi**h and complain.”

Marshall said this mentality carried over into the team’s contest against Robert Morris on Monday, where they fell to the Colonials by a score of 70-59. The Blue Devils had a disastrous start, turning the ball over six times in that many possessions, failing to even get off a field goal attempt.

But they managed to come back, even taking the lead at one point. They trailed by eight heading to the break but were unable to mount a comeback in the second half, despite cutting it to single-digits on multiple occasions.

“We’ve got to learn that just because you cut it down, you’ve got to play hard. You can’t come down and get lackadaisical. You cut the lead down, you’ve got to kick it up a notch more than what got you there,” Marshall said of his team’s performance late.

But at the end of the game, leading scorer Tyler Kohl was on the bench for the final seven minutes while the team was trying to mount the comeback.

Kohl was clamped down on by the Colonials defense, scoring three points on just one of two attempted field goals. He also grabbed five rebounds and dished out five assists but turned the ball over that many times.

When asked of the decision to keep Kohl on the bench, Marshall opted not to comment.

“Right now, I’d just rather leave that in-house,” he said.

Picking up the slack was junior forward Jamir Coleman, who scored a career-high 27 points on 10/19 shooting to go with nine rebounds.

Marshall was pleased with Coleman’s performance on the offensive end.

“I thought he played well offensively. I still think he struggled a little bit defensively,” Marshall said. “He got rebounds. He’s a guy we’ve been asking to rebound. He did a great job of keeping us in the game, that’s why we were calling plays for him on the offensive end.”

Freshman Mike Underwood, who had not scored a point all year, had 16 points on four made three-pointers.

“We’ve told him all year that the biggest thing for him was to come out and play hard and do whatever’s necessary for the team and today, he was able to do that,” Marshall said of Underwood.

The Blue Devils will travel to Bryant on Thursday, looking to get back on track.

Marshall said his team must begin to play together in order to be successful.

“We can show as much film as we want, we can put the chalk on the board, we can do whatever. Until we become a team and start playing for each other again, there’s nothing we can do,” Marshall said. “You can be as talented as you want, but if you don’t play together and as a team, you’re not going to win.”