That’s exactly what happened for CCSU in its 84-75 win over Le Moyne on Thursday. The Blue Devils were down by six at halftime and stormed back thanks to stellar defensive play to extend their win streak to 11, the longest consecutive string for the program since 2007.
“Second half, we amped up the pressure,” head coach Patrick Sellers said of his team’s defensive approach after halftime. “We had different coverage with ball screens, and it got us going in transition and got us running.”
Anchoring the defensive effort was Joe Ostrowsky, as the Central floor general had a career-best six steals and had a handful of other plays in which he disrupted the flow of the Dolphin offense. It may not always show up in the stat sheet, but Ostrowsky makes winning plays that were exceptionally evident in the win on Thursday.
“It’s team defense,” Ostrowsky said. “When everyone’s in the gap, it’s hard to drive and hard for the offense to get its flow, so we messed them up a little bit.”
“One thing about Joe, he brings so much to the table that you don’t see in the stat sheet,” Sellers said. “He’s always in the right position, he knows exactly where every player needs to be and is always calling out our offensive plays and defensive coverages.”
Abdul Momoh and Davonte Sweatman were also anchors in the comeback, as the big man Momoh blocked three shots and Sweatman had a pair of steals on top of strong on-ball defense, not making things easy for the Le Moyne ball handlers. While the Dolphins did score 75 points, there were stretches where they couldn’t buy a bucket and CCSU used those stretches to expand its lead, such as right after the under-4 timeout in the second half, where the Blue Devils went on a 9-0 run to make a four-point game a 13-point game.
The defense was the story, but offensively, Central was once again paced by Devin Haid. Haid scored a team-high 18 points to go with nine rebounds and six assists, leaving his fingerprints all over the game offensively for Sellers. With how dominant the Blue Devils have been this season, it feels like a disservice not to call Haid the Northeast Conference Player of the Year with how often he’s stepped up in big spots for the number-one team in the league.
“We were down a lot in this game, so the biggest thing is to never give up,” Haid said. “We just have to fight through it.”
Haid, Ostrowsky and Jayden Brown combined to shoot 8-of-12 from deep, including that stretch after the final media timeout where all three connected consecutively to put the Blue Devils up big for good. Central has been a below average three-point shooting team all season, so if it can shoot like that come postseason play, it feels like the Blue Devils will be hard to stop.
“We’re not a great three-point shooting team, so when we make a lot of threes, it's really good because it makes our offense look so much better,” Sellers said.
Up next for CCSU is the regular season finale at Wagner on Saturday. For the first time this season, the Blue Devils will play on national television, as the game is set to air on ESPNU at 6 p.m. The Seahawks are one of the two teams that picked off CCSU this season, back when the two teams faced off in New Britain in mid-January.
“I said to the guys, ‘Fellas, honestly, we’re the best team in the league,’” Sellers said. “We’re not gonna be afraid to say it. We have to go out there and act like it and go out there and do it. We can’t go thinking about it, we just have to do it.”
Looking ahead to next week’s NEC Tournament, the No. 1 seed Blue Devils are set to host either Le Moyne for the second straight home game or Chicago State, depending on how things play out on Saturday. Either way, CCSU will host its first playoff game of the season Wednesday night at 7 p.m. inside Kaiser Hall.
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