The Central Connecticut State University men’s basketball team picked up their 10th win in a row, clinching at least a share of their second straight Northeast Conference regular season championship on senior day in a 67-41 win against the Stonehill Skyhawks on Saturday at Detrick Gymnasium.
Senior guard Jordan Jones had a game-high 23 points, three rebounds and dished out four assists. He tied his Division I career-high in three-pointers made in a game with five and shot 9 of 16 from the field. Junior guard Devin Haid was the only other Blue Devil to score in double figures, finishing with 10 points, seven rebounds and a game-high four steals.
Jones started the game off hot, making two three-pointers in the first four minutes. At the 10:08 mark, Jones made his third three-pointer of the game to give CCSU a 16-7 lead. Right when the game looked like it was about to get out of hand, Stonehill answered with a 7-0 run.
The Blue Devils tried to mix things up on defense by playing a little bit of zone in the first half. CCSU Head Coach Patrick Sellers said that Wagner also played zone against Stonehill, and it took them out of their rhythm, so he wanted to see if he could do the same. Sellers said that he told assistant coach Lenny Jefferson, who calls all the defense, that the zone was affecting the team’s offense.
“I think the zone is slowing us down,” Sellers said. “So, let’s play man so that we can stay in a phonetic pace.”
The biggest swing of the game came at the 3:40 mark, when the Blue Devils went on a 12-1 run to end the first half. Jones made a layup and a three-pointer, which was his fourth of the half; Haid made a midrange jumper, and senior guard Jaelen McGlone added a layup and a three-pointer of his own. After the run, the Blue Devils went into halftime with a 37-21 lead.
In the first half, CCSU held Stonehill to 36% shooting from the field, 9.1% from beyond the arc and had 5 steals.
The Blue Devils took care of business by never letting their lead fall below 14 points. Jones scored nine points and added another three-pointer, Haid scored six points and senior forward Brody Limric was able to score in one of his last home games of his collegiate career.
After the game, Sellers praised his team for being on point even with little time to practice.
“Credit to our guys,” he said, “they did a really good job of listening [and] watching film, because we just came in for probably 45 minutes yesterday [to] watch film and they got out. We didn’t get on the court at all, we [only] had a shootaround this morning.”
Sellers said that he is not an emotional guy, but when Joe Ostrowsky, Jayden Brown, Davonte Sweatman and Abdul Momoh’s names were called, it really hit him because it was his first recruiting class after he got the head coaching job. Sellers talked about how early in their years it wasn’t going as smoothly as it is now.
“We lost I think nine or 10 straight,” he said. “And I’m in the locker room after the games or in film telling these guys we’re this close.”
Jones talked about playing on senior day.
“It feels good, man, to just be around a group of guys that I love so much,” he said. “Just to have the community and everyone come out and to bring a win back to our school.”
With the win, CCSU improves its NEC record to 12-2 and overall record to 21-6.
The Blue Devils will look to continue their winning streak in their final two matches of the season against the Le Moyne Dolphins at Detrick Gymnasium on Thursday, Feb. 27, and against the Wagner Seahawks at Spiro Sports Center on Saturday, March. 1.
