NEW BRITAIN – For the first time since the 2006-07 season, the Central Connecticut State University men’s basketball team has won its eighth straight game after a massive second-half run saw the Blue Devils come back to defeat the Saint Francis University Red Flash 83-67 at home on Saturday afternoon.
Between the end of the first half and the start of the second, Detrick Gymnasium bore witness to a historic Central surge and a disastrous Saint Francis collapse. The Blue Devils, who had trailed by as many as 11 points, erupted for a 27-0 run that completely flipped the game on its head.
“That 27-0 run is what we do in practice everyday,” Head Coach Patrick Sellers said.
Three Blue Devils scored in double figures during the contest. Senior guard Jordan Jones led the way with 24 points on nine of 14 shooting from the field and three of four from three. He also tallied seven assists and four rebounds. Last week’s Northeast Conference Player of the Week junior guard Devin Haid added 21 points, seven rebounds and two steals, while senior forward Jayden Brown contributed 13 points and nine rebounds.
Jordan Jones’ 24 points and Haid’s 21 points marked the second time this season that two Blue Devils finished a game with 20 or more points. Jordan Jones said the team’s selfless play means that anyone can have a good scoring night.
“We’re super unselfish,” Jordan Jones said. “My teammates trust me to just swing the ball whenever I’m open. I do the same thing. We just got a very good team that’s unselfish, so everyone gets to score and touch the ball. . . . We could have the whole team on the roster go for 20 a night.”
Central came into Saturday’s game against Saint Francis on the back of a 73-63 home victory over Mercyhurst University on Thursday that extended their winning streak to seven games. Jordan Jones had a game-high 19 points and eight assists. Saint Francis was defeated in its last game, losing away to Stonehill College 79-74.
Senior forward Abdul Momoh started hot for the Blue Devils, scoring their first six points in the opening five minutes. However, the Red Flash caught fire from beyond the arc, hitting five of eight threes to build a 24-13 lead with 10:29 left in the first half. Saint Francis proceeded to go cold the rest of the period, making just one of seven from deep and opening the door for a Central comeback.
After trading buckets for several minutes, the Blue Devils went on a 7-0 run in the last 2:01 of the first half, trimming the Red Flash’ lead to just three, at 41-38, before halftime. Unfortunately for Saint Francis, this was only the beginning of what was to come.
Jordan Jones started the second half by making a jump shot, cutting the deficit to one. After Momoh sent back a shot by the Red Flash, Jordan Jones would score again, hitting a three to give Central its first lead since the beginning of the game. From there, the Blue Devils would pour in another 15 points to take a 17-point lead at 58-41 with 14:32 left in the game.
By this point, Saint Francis’ percentage from three had been cut in half from 62.5% midway through the first half to just 33.3%. At the same time, Central’s three-point shooting rose from just 25% to 55.5%.
After going scoreless for seven consecutive minutes of the game, the Red Flash made a layup with 14:11 left, kickstarting an 11-2 run that cut the Blue Devils’ lead back down to eight at 60-52. It was the closest Saint Francis got as Central spent the rest of the quarter in complete control, extending its lead to 20 at 81-61–the largest of the game–with 2:17 to go. From there, both teams emptied their benches as the Blue Devils cruised to the final whistle.
One of Central’s biggest struggles in the first half was its inability to get back on defense after missed shots, giving Saint Francis easy fast break opportunities. Head Coach Patrick Sellers said that he had to adjust the team’s offensive rebounding strategy to get more players up the court sooner.
“We have to turn and sprint,” Sellers said. “We’ve been lulling ourselves to sleep, sending two or three guys to crash on the offensive glass. Against this team [Saint Francis], It’s hard to do that because they’re going in transition. We just said we’ll send one—Ab [Momoh] or Max [Frazier]––to go to the glass, and everybody else get back in transition.”
A key aspect of Saturday’s win was Momoh’s stellar defense. Momoh had a career-high six blocks against Saint Francis, tying him for seventh place on the program’s all-time blocked shots list. He currently leads the conference in blocks per game with 1.5.
“Running them off the line, they send them to me,” Momoh said. “So I got to do what I got to do, try and clean it up without fouling.”
With the victory, Central remains atop the NEC, improving its record in league play to 10-2, 19-6 overall. The Blue Devils travel to Chicago to take on Chicago State University on Thursday before returning to New Britain for two of their final three games before the start of the tournament.
