CCSU wins 10th straight to cap off senior day festivities

By Connor Wilson (@Conman_815)

NEW BRITAIN, Conn. — Every program around the country hosts a senior day in late February or early March, usually on or around the final home game the team plays in the regular season. It’s always a special day that honors the hard work and dedication that players put in over their careers and a way to celebrate them.

For Patrick Sellers, this year’s rendition of senior day means a little more. Hired four years ago, this is the first senior class that Sellers personally recruited to come play basketball at Central Connecticut State. Seven Blue Devils were honored before Saturday’s game against Stonehill, a game the Blue Devils won, 67-41, to mark 10 consecutive victories in Northeast Conference play and also clinch at least a share of a regular season title for the second consecutive season.

Four of the seven players honored—Jayden Brown, Abdul Momoh, Joe Ostrowsky and Davonte Sweatman—played all four years of their careers at Central, starting as freshmen in Sellers’ first season. The other three—Jordan Jones, Devin Haid and Brody Limric—all joined the program later in their careers, with Jones and Haid starting at the Division II level and Limric coming over from Quinnipiac.

“I’m not like an emotional guy. I’m not gonna get teary eyed. That’s not me,” Sellers said. “But when they called those guys’ names today, it hit me.”

Each of the four seniors to be on the roster the past four seasons all carved their own unique paths to get where they are today, starting with Brown, the 6-foot-7 forward started 22 of 25 games as a freshman before coming off the bench every game of his sophomore year. The past two seasons, he’s been back in the starting lineup and one of the more important players for the Blue Devils on both sides of the ball.

“It means a lot to celebrate everything with all these guys that I came in with,” Brown said. “We started at the bottom, now we’re at the top. It was a building process, but a fun process.”

Brown’s frontcourt mate Momoh had a similar bench to starter transition. As a freshman, he was limited to just four games due to injury and was thrust right into the starting lineup as a sophomore. Last season, he saw a minute decrease and was strictly used as a backup big. Many players in the portal era would have taken advantage of less playing time and jumped ship elsewhere, but Momoh stayed the course and has been inserted back in the starting lineup as a senior, using his force inside to be a big offensive weapon.

“It’s bittersweet,” Momoh said. “I think we had eight freshmen my freshman year and it dwindled down to just four. We’ve been through a lot, starting out as a four-win team and then we won 10 games, then we won 20 games and we’re looking to win 24, 25 this year. It’s been a tough journey.”

On that journey all of the seniors grew as players and young men. They didn’t grow physically, though, especially not the 5-foot-8 Davonte Sweatman. One of the smallest players in Division I, Sweatman has been a consistent reserve for Central over the past four years and has jumped up to the sixth man role this season, not making a start until Saturday for senior day. He may be small, but he brings great toughness and believe it or not, can even throw down dunks on occasion.

“We always knew we had the talent, but we couldn’t put it together,” Sweatman said. “As we got older, staying together with all those seniors out there, it’s tough to beat a team with all that knowledge and wisdom out there.”

Lastly for the four-year seniors, there’s Ostrowsky. Committing as a walk-on, the Cheshire Academy alum has worked day in and day out up to being a starter as a senior. He doesn’t always stuff the stat sheet in the scoring department, but can be counted on to distribute, handle the ball, and play hard-nosed on-ball defense. It’s rare to see walk-ons earn scholarships nowadays, but for one to become a starter on a championship level team is unheard of.

“Coming in with these guys freshman year, we all had a goal to stay here all four years and turn this program around,” Ostrwosky said. “I feel like we’ve done our part and want to keep this thing going.”

And turn the program around, they did. CCSU was always ranked among the worst teams in the country in the years prior and even in the first year that those four players were in the program. To turn things around that quickly, it shows just how important each of them is to the history of the Blue Devils’ program.

“I remember we had a stretch where we lost nine or ten straight and I’m in the locker room after the games telling these guys, ‘Fellas, we’re this close,’” Sellers said. “That was a long time ago and these guys stuck with it. Now four years later, those guys are back-to-back regular season champs.”

During Saturday’s game, each of those four-year guys were in the starting lineup together for the first time in their careers. The fifth starter, Jones, was the star in the blowout win, scoring 23 points and knocking down five 3-pointers. In fact, none of Brown, Momoh, Sweatman or Ostrowsky scored more than five points in the victory. Did that matter to them?

Not one bit.

The reason Central Connecticut State is in the position it is in is because of the team first mindset the Blue Devils have. It doesn’t matter who scores points, all that matters is that the team wins. And they’ve been doing a lot of winning lately, so I’d say it's working.

The Blue Devils will have a chance to clinch the NEC regular season title outright with just one more win this season or a loss by LIU. Central is back in action on Thursday, hosting Le Moyne for the team’s final regular season home game of the year before the NEC tournament begins on March 5.