Blue Devils Move to 7-1 at Home

The Central Connecticut men's basketball team got 22 points from its bench, and moved to 6-1 in Northeast Conference play with a 69-51 home victory over Bryant on Thursday night.  The win completes the season sweep against the Bulldogs.

Central is now 9-8 overall and 6-1 in the league.

Senior Ken Horton posted his 25th career double-double with 18 points and 11 rebounds.  Nine of his rebounds came in the first half, as the Blue Devils jumped out to a 31-20 lead at halftime.

Freshman Kyle Vinales had 18 points, including four threes, and classmate Malcolm McMillan dished out 10 assists without committing a turnover in the victory.

As a team the Blue Devils had 22 assists and only 10 turnovers.  They forced Bryant to commit 14 turnovers and produced 18 points from those miscues.

Vinales added seven assists in the home victory, the 10th in the last 11 games against league opponents. 

Bryant shot just 32.2 percent, and 20 percent from three in the loss.  The Blue Devils hit on 44 percent, and hit 7-of-21 from three.  They were 8-of-10 from the line, including 5-of-5 from senior Robby Ptacek, the nation's second-best free-throw shooter.   He is now at 93 percent on the season.

Ptacek finished the game with nine points and seven rebounds, six on the defensive end of the floor.  Junior Joe Efese had 10 points, he was 4-of-7 from the field.  He added four rebounds.

Central never trailed in the victory, and led by as many as 18 in the first half before the Bulldogs cut it to 11 at halftime.  The lead reached 22 in the second half with 4:45 to play.

Horton led the Blue Devils with 18 points and 11 rebounds.  He also had a block, three steals and two assists.  Vinales added 18 and Efese had 10 in the win.  McMillan's 10 assists give him 23 in the two games vs. Bryant this season.  He has only two turnovers in those two games.

The trio of Efese, senior David Simmons and sophomore Terrell Allen combined to hit 7-of-11 from the field, and had 16 points and nine rebounds in 35 minutes. 

Central returns to action on Saturday on the road at Sacred Heart at 3:30 p.m.