Men Win Third Straight

The Central Connecticut men's basketball team won its third straight game and improved to 6-4 in Northeast Conference play with a 80-71 road victory at Fairleigh Dickinson on Saturday night.  The win pushes the Blue Devils to 10-11 overall on the season.

Central sweeps the New Jersey trip, having beaten Monmouth on Thursday night and then the win tonight.  They will hold the tie-breaker over both of those teams if it should come to that at the end of the season.  Central plays both of those teams only once this season.

They also improved to 6-0 this season when scoring at least 80 points, and 10-3 when scoring 70 or more. 

Sophomore Adonis Burbage led the offense with 24 points including three threes and 5-of-6 from the line.  Junior Matt Hunter had 16 points and nine rebounds to go along with three assists and six steals.  Senior Joe Efese had 12 points and seven rebounds, all on the offensive end of the floor.  Junior Terrell Allen added 10 points and 11 rebounds for his first career double-double.

Central opened the game with seven straight points, forcing an early FDU timeout.  The lead was cut to 9-8 with seven coming from Yves Jules for the Knights.  Central controlled much of the rest of the half despite sophomore Kyle Vinales going to the bench with his second foul at 12:04.  He didn't play the rest of the first half.

The Central lead stretched to 24-14 after eight Efese points.  The senior had eight points and seven rebounds at halftime to lead the attack for the Blue Devils. 

Central led 31-21 after the sixth point from Allen, but he picked up his third foul and had to go to the bench.  They led 40-27 at halftime after shooting 41 percent from the field and posting 10 assists on 15 baskets.  The Blue Devils forced nine FDU turnovers that led to nine points.  Hunter had nine points and six rebounds.

The lead reached 53-37 with a breakaway dunk from Burbage with under 15 to play in the game.  The points were the 15th of the game for Burbage and pushed the lead to 16.

It was 61-41 after a two-hand jam from McMillan, his eighth points of the game, with 11:35 to play.  Burbage was credited with the basket prior to that as the Knights tipped it into the hoop. 

The Blue Devil lead stretched to as many as 24 in the last 10 minutes of the game.  Central shot the ball well from the free-throw line in the game, hitting 21-of-28, after shooting less than 55 percent in the last five games prior to Saturday.

Central finished the game with only 13 turnovers and 10 steals, including six from Hunter.  Four Blue Devils had at least seven rebounds in the game, as they outrebounded the Knights 43-32 on the night, including 17 offensive boards.

The Blue Devils return home on Thursday night at 7 p.m. hosting LIU Brooklyn live on CPTV Sports.  The game will also air live on NEC Front Row, and on Fox Sports Radio 1410 and ESPN Radio 1300.