By Connor Wilson (@Conman_815)
NEW BRITAIN, Conn. — In most years, and in most mid-major leagues, dropping four out of five at the end of January usually means a significant upward battle for seeding in the conference tournament.
Not for Central Connecticut this year, though.
After starting 4-1 in NEC play, the Blue Devils followed that up with a 1-4 stretch that was capped off by a 21-point blowout loss at home last Saturday to LIU, putting the team at 5-5 with just eight games left in the regular season.
“I keep on saying that February is a new month with a new schedule and new attitude,” head coach Patrick Sellers said. “We have to take it one game at a time.”
Fortunately for CCSU, being 5-5 doesn’t crush its hopes of hosting a game in the NEC tournament in March, perhaps even hosting a couple. The Blue Devils entered Thursday sixth in the standings, but just one game behind a collection of teams all tied for second at 6-4.
To sweeten the pot, CCSU knocked off Chicago State in New Britain on Thursday, 78-67, to move to 6-5 in league play behind four double-figure scorers and a much-needed 24 points from Darin Smith, Jr.
“We’ve talked the last month or so about finishing the half the right way because we haven’t been,” Sellers said. “We made a conscious effort as a staff to manage minutes to have our guys fresher near the end of the game, and I think that worked for us tonight.”
The game was neck-and-neck for the first 14 minutes of the first half before the Blue Devils closed the period on a 12-2 run over the final six minutes to take a seven point lead, 35-28. Smith and Melo Sanchez combined for 24 at the break, getting open looks as a result of extra passes against the Cougars’ hybrid defense. Sanchez had 11 of his 14 points in the first 20 minutes.
“My teammates believe in me, and when I score the ball, it helps everybody else get involved,” Smith said. “Because I’m the main focus on the defensive end for other teams, it opens up more for my teammates.”
Smith had been in a bit of a rut scoring that coincided with CCSU’s skid. In the first five NEC games, he averaged 23.6 points per game and the Blue Devils went 4-1. The next five? Smith averaged 12.6 points per contest and the team went 1-4. Not once during that second stretch did he even reach the 20-point plateau, something he did Thursday.
In the second half, it was all about the bench production for the Blue Devils. Roddy Jones tied his Division I opponent career-high with 11 points, connecting on three triples without hesitation. Daniel James provided some nice size off the bench with some tough buckets inside as well.
“There’s so many eyes on Smitty, so it lets guys like Roddy get open looks,” Sellers said. “Roddy had a couple lift on the ball screen, we threw it back to him, and he’s wide open.”
After trading blows for most of the second half, Smith knocked down a side-step three right in front of his bench to push the lead to eight at 63-55 with seven minutes to play, but five straight Cougar points afterwards cut it back to three and forced a Sellers timeout.
Out of the timeout, Jay Rodgers found Max Frazier with one of the duo’s signature alley-oops, and Smith buried another trey to get things right back to eight at 68-60 and the lead never got to one possession again. Frazier used some late scoring to finish with 15 points, while Rodgers had 13 assists despite missing his lone field goal attempt.
The biggest difference that allowed CCSU to end up on top was rebounding, where the Blue Devils dominated the glass, 38-20. That was a point of emphasis for the scouting report to limit second-chance opportunities.
“Before the game, we always talk about rebounding, so we just came into the day today and had it,” Frazier said. “Our last couple of games, we haven’t rebounded well, but it's a new day, new month, new chapter.”
Looking ahead to the next three weeks of play, CCSU has four of its final seven games at home and the three road games are all against teams who are below them in the standings. There will be ample opportunities for the Blue Devils to turn things around and compete for a top four spot in the league, ideally with LIU all but certainly headed towards the No. 1 spot, either the two or three seed.
“I think every single game is big,” Smith said. “Just win one game at a time and try to get all the ones you can. And those three games in March are the most important.”
Central Connecticut is back in action on Saturday when it hosts Wagner in New Britain. Tip is set for 1 p.m. from Detrick Gymnasium.
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