By Connor Wilson (@Conman_815)
NEW BRITAIN, Conn. — After falling at home for the first time this season on Friday against Wagner, Central Connecticut State lost its second straight game on Sunday when LIU came to Detrick Gymnasium and pulled off a narrow 54-52 victory.
“Gotta give LIU credit, they did a really good job,” head coach Patrick Sellers said. “They changed their defense in the second half of their game against Stonehill and started the game like that against us, and threw us out of rhythm, too.”
It was a very sloppy first half for both teams, a half that saw the visiting Sharks lead by eight at its conclusion, at 24-16. CCSU shot 5-for-25 as a team and only had three players make field goals. It wasn’t necessarily true that the Blue Devils were taking bad shots, they just weren’t falling.
“We got disjointed offensively and were missing many, I think, makeable shots,” Sellers said.
The lone bright spot in the scoring department for Central was Devin Haid. The junior guard scored 20 points, 15 in the second half, and hit the running triple that gave the Blue Devils their first lead of the second stanza.
“I was taking a lot of settled shots in the first half,” Haid said. “My coaches were telling me to attack the rim more and attack their players, so that’s what I did in the second half.”
In that second half, the level of shotmaking increased on both sides. Terell Strickland, son of LIU head coach Rod Strickland, and Malachi Davis stepped up their production for the Sharks, as well as freshman Shadrak Lasu. For Central, Haid hit some difficult shots and Max Frazier had a sequence where he blocked a shot on one end and had a putback dunk on the other.
“(The) second half was definitely a better effort for us offensively,” Sellers said. “Defensively, these guys really put their hard hats on and went to work.”
Jordan Jones was the only other player for Central in double figures. Many players finished well below their season averages, including just four points for Jayden Brown and a scoreless outing for Joe Ostrowsky. Even with a low scoring effort, the Blue Devils still showed great willingness to come back from down as many as nine points in the second half.
“We came out stronger in the second half and did what the coaches asked us to do,” Haid said. “We should have been ready to do that in the first half, and that’s what got us in that hole early.”
Things got quite interesting down the stretch. LIU had the ball with 40 seconds left up by two and CCSU chose not to foul, opting to go for the defensive stop. The Blue Devils ended up getting it after a missed jumper and had the ball with 12.1 seconds to play, needing to go the length of the court. On their first attempt, Jones had his tying layup attempt blocked out of bounds. The clock sat at 5.6 seconds and the Blue Devils had another chance. The inbounds pass was bobbled by Jones and turned over.
“They bottled us up in the corner and I don’t know if Jordan thought the clock was running out, but he kinda just stopped playing,” Sellers said. “Right away, we should have been fouling. Right away, we should have had a chance with at least three or four seconds left on the clock.”
Jones turned the ball over with over four seconds remaining, but the entire Blue Devils team froze like the game had ended and didn’t foul until 1.2 seconds were left. LIU wasn’t in the bonus yet, so all the Sharks did was pass the ball in and the game was over.
The loss, and weekend as a whole, was really a reality check for a CCSU program that was off to an historic start to the season. The Blue Devils were unbeaten at home before Friday and started league play 2-0, with wins on the road at Saint Francis and Mercyhurst. Now, they’re 2-2 and have two home losses on the ledger.
“We’re gonna have a really good film session on Tuesday,” Sellers said. “The film really helps us because the guys can see what’s going on and it helps us get into a faster mode. We have to move the ball and move faster.”
There’s still plenty of time left in the season for a team with NCAA tournament goals to overcome a rough weekend. Being two games back in the loss column of LIU isn’t ideal, especially having lost to the Sharks at home, but it isn’t time to hit the panic button quite yet in New Britain.
Up next for CCSU is a road clash with FDU in New Jersey. Tip is set for 4 p.m. Saturday at the Bogota Savings Bank Center in Hackensack.
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