As the horn sounded Saturday, it marked the end of a disappointing season for Central Connecticut’s men’s basketball team that resulted in them missing the Northeast Conference tournament.

Entering the weekend, the Blue Devils had a tall task at hand to reach the postseason, needing to beat both LIU Brooklyn and Fairleigh Dickinson, in addition to several other outcomes across the conference.

It was an even greater challenge as they would be without Tyler Kohl and Joe Hugley, who remained indefinitely suspended.

The team’s hopes were dashed Thursday night when LIU shot the lights out, defeating the Blue Devils 84-55, eliminating them from playoff contention for the fourth time in five seasons.

Though Central was eliminated, Saturday’s FDU contest was still meaningful, as the Knights could win a share of the NEC regular season title with a win. In addition, the team honored Deion Bute, Tyson Batiste and Kashaun Hicks, who were all playing their final game at Detrick Gymnasium.

It was a slow start offensively for the Blue Devils in the first half, failing to score for five minutes. But they managed to enter the break at just a five-point deficit.

Their comeback continued early in the second half, even taking a five-point lead of their own. The run was sparked by junior guard Chris Williams, who has seen sparse playing time in his three-year stint. Williams had a team-high 14 points in 23 minutes.

Marshall said Williams earned a spot in the starting lineup as well as significant playing time.

“He’s a guy, I think, if you look at our bench, he’s cheered everybody on, no matter the situation was, he’s probably the guy who’s cheered everybody on,” Marshall said.

But the Blue Devils were unable to maintain this lead, something Marshall attributed to giving up too many three-pointers at the wrong time.

“We just gave up the threes at the wrong time. They’re a very good three-point shooting team. But they moved the ball, they put on a clinic. They moved the basketball, their guys that can shoot got the wide-open shots,” Marshall said.

Following a strong 6-7 non-conference record, Central was never able to gain traction in the NEC, including six straight losses to end the season.

Marshall said the reason for the team’s shortcomings came off the court.

“Sometimes family just doesn’t get along. We had some ups and downs, some internal issues we just couldn’t get over,” Marshall said. “We didn’t come to play hard every night. We just couldn’t put some issues to the side. The good teams do that. They’re able to put their issues to the side and come together for the most important thing, and that’s to win the basketball game.”

The team will experience a great deal of turnover as Bute, Batiste, Hicks and Kohl will all be leaving the program due to graduation. Hugley tweeted Monday that he is also graduating and transferring.

Though Marshall acknowledged the team “thought [they] were going to be better” and “underachieved,” he still feels there is reason to be excited about the future of the program.

“But I also think we’re bringing the excitement back, we’re bringing interest of recruits back to Central. We all want to win 18, 19, 20 games but it’s not something you’re going to turn around right away. It’s a process,” Marshall said while also mentioning he inherited a program that ranked last in the country in Ranking Percentile Index (RPI).

He said this year’s underachieving will motivate the coaching staff heading into the offseason.

“We’ve got a young coaching staff that’s ready to work and willing to go work. We know we underachieved, but we’re going to go out there and get the players in here that want to be here and want to play basketball,” Marshall continued. “That’s why we have the confidence we have.”