After an off-season of change and two hard away games to start the season, the Central Connecticut State University Blue Devils women’s basketball team returned home to Detrick Gymnasium on Nov. 13 to host the Sacred Heart Pioneers in their first home game of the season, ultimately falling to the Pioneers 74-64.
The Blue Devils look to recuperate following a tumultuous 2024-25 campaign. It’s highlighted by now head coach Kristin Caruso, who became the interim head coach in the middle of last year’s season. The team ended the regular season 11-19 but were 10-6 in conference play, which awarded them a berth into the Northeast Conference Tournament, where their season ended at the hands of Chicago State.
The 2025 campaign is Caruso’s first full season with the team. She was forced to make heavy adjustments to the team after what Caruso described as “95% of the points” either left or graduated between seasons, most notably 2024-25 NEC Player of the Year Belle Lanpher, who graduated following five seasons of Blue Devil hoops.
The game began with Sacred Heart establishing their offensive firepower early, as the Pioneers would get out to at most an 18-5 lead after six minutes of play thanks to efficient midrange and layup shooting. Central would recover some of the deficit by the start of the second quarter and keep the game within eight points for the entire second quarter. They tied with over a minute remaining before Sacred Heart pulled the lead back by a point in their favor.
In the second half, Central took their first lead of the game following a floater from Lucia Noin, but Sacred Heart would come back to take a lead despite the best efforts from Mathilda Toure, who scored all eight of her points in the game during the third quarter.
Despite the Blue Devils’ best efforts, SHU would continue to pull away in the fourth quarter and never look back. Despite a lackluster end to the last half of the fourth, the Pioneers took the victory and spoiled CCSU’s home return.
The game was emphasized by its physicality on both sides, as many total fouls were called throughout the game, which slowed the pace of the game massively. This meant a good number of the points scored Thursday night were from the free throw line.
Both teams also struggled from beyond the arc, shooting a combined 26.4% from three.
Freshman Kiyah Lewis was the leading scorer for the Blue Devils, scoring career highs with 18 points and seven rebounds in 33 minutes. Noin was another key contributor to the Central offense with 13 points and five rebounds.
Noin talked about her role in the offensive scheme in the new season and how it differed from her role last season.
“I’m getting more shots up, in the offense I have a bigger role than last year,” she said. “I need to be more patient. I’m learning, it’s a process and I think I’m getting better every day.”
Despite the loss, she spoke highly about her teammates and emphasized Caruso’s points about how young the team is and how leadership is important from her and her other upperclassmen teammates.
“As coach said, we have a really young team. I think we’re learning every week, getting better with every game. Having a young team takes time,” she said. “As leaders, we have to be there and show up every single day.”
Coach Caruso would echo Noin’s comments about how different the team is since the last time Central saw action from them in February and how difficult it is from a coaching perspective.
“I literally lost 95% of my points, and I brought in eight newcomers. And the five that I brought back have little to no playing experience.”
While the team is inexperienced, she wants their defense to improve.
“74 was too many points. Defensively we need to get better, but I have a super young team. We have to keep trying after every game to get better.”
She praised Lewis’ game but admitted that there are a lot of ups and downs in a first-year player.
“A freshman is gonna be a freshman,” she said. “I think it’s gonna take time.”
Caruso is looking at more than just the outcomes of the game.
“We have a tough out-of-conference schedule, but we’re not looking at the wins and losses. The biggest challenge is getting them to trust each other and play together. It’s important for our confidence level.”
After a tough loss, the Blue Devils will look to bounce back in their second straight game at Detrick Gymnasium on Nov. 15 as they host the UMass Lowell River Hawks.
