Maryland Tops Men's Hoop on Monday Night

The Central Connecticut men's basketball team fell to 0-2 on the season with a 93-57 loss on the road at Maryland on Monday night.  Sophomore Matt Mobley posted his second straight game with 20 or more points, leading the Blue Devils with 24 points.  He had 30 in the first game of the season last Friday vs. Fairfield and scored 20 or more in back-to-back games for the first time in his career.

The game was the first of four in the NABC College Basketball Experience Tournament for the Blue Devils.  The next three will take place on the campus of Monmouth University as the Blue Devils play Towson, Monmouth and Bethune Cookman on Friday, Saturday and Sunday of this week.

The Terps led by 12 at the half, but came out hot in the second and built the lead to 64-36 just seven minutes into the second half.  Maryland hit nine of its first 13 shots in the period to build the lead.  They were 4-of-6 from three to open the period and finished the second half shooting 60 percent from the field and 55 percent from three.

Mobley finished the game with a team-high 24 points, leading the Blue Devils in scoring for the second straight game.  He was 10-18 from the field in the game and hit a pair of threes.  Classmate Khalen Cumberlander added 11 points on 4-of-9 shooting from the field.  Freshman Mustafa Jones added six points and six rebounds.  Senior Greg Andrade scored a career-high seven points in the loss.  Jones played 25 minutes, Andrade 27, both career-highs.  Andrade added three rebounds and a pair of steals.  Cumberlander added five rebounds.  Maryland held a 40-31 edge in rebounds in the game.

The Terps were led by Dez Wells who scored a game-high 27 points on 10-of-15 shooting and a perfect 3-of-3 from three.  Jake Layman added 14 points.

Maryland climbed out to a quick 24-8 lead with 9:46 left in the first half as the Blue Devils struggled to get going on the offensive end of the floor.  But the Blue Devils answered, and over the next five minutes rattled off a 14-4 run, sparked by sophomore classmates Mobley and Cumberlander.  Cumberlander scored the first six points of the game for CCSU, Mobley the next 10 and 14 of the next 18, as the Blue Devils cut the Maryland lead to 28-22 with 4:44 left before halftime.

The Terps answered, however, and built the lead back to 38-22 with a 10-0 run fueled by a couple of CCSU turnovers and quick Maryland hoops.   The Blue Devils scored the final four points of the half and made it 38-26 at the break.  Mobley had 14 and Cumberlander had eight at halftime.  Jones had four rebounds in 10 minutes of action.

CCSU shot 23-of-65 from the field in the game, just 35.4 percent.  They hit 5-of-15 from three in the game but only 6-of-10 from the free-throw line. 

Central is back in action on Friday at 5 p.m. against Towson in the next phase of the NABC College Basketball Experience Tournament, being played at Monmouth.  They will face Monmouth on Saturday and Bethune-Cookman on Sunday at 2 p.m.