Men's Hoop Drops 65-50 Decision to Monmouth on Saturday

The Central Connecticut men's basketball team dropped to 0-4 on the season with a 65-50 loss on the road at Monmouth on Saturday night.  The game was the second of three for the Blue Devils in the NABC CBE Hall of Fame Classic being held at Monmouth.  The Hawks are now 2-1 on the season.

Central will complete the weekend facing Bethune-Cookman on Sunday at 2 p.m.  Bethune is also 0-2 in the tournament after losses to Monmouth on Friday and Towson on Saturday.

Sophomore Khalen Cumberlander finished the game with a season-high 15 points while adding five rebounds.  Senior Faronte Drakeford added 12 points and four assists in the loss.  Sophomore Matt Mobley had 11 points and four rebounds. 

Central opened the game and scored the first 12 points, holding the Hawks without a basket for the first 4:08 of the game.  Central led at the first media timeout, but then would go more than 10 minutes without another point.

After trailing 12-0, Monmouth scored the game's next 15 points and held the Blue Devils scoreless for the next 10:18, before a three from senior Greg Andrade tied the game at 15. 

With the game tied at 21 with 2:47 left before the half, the Hawks used a 10-2 run to build a 31-23 lead at the break.

The Blue Devils opened the second half and cut the Hawk lead to two at the first media timeout, 35-33, with 15:23 left.  Drakeford had six early points and Cumberlander and Mobley each added a bucket.  A 6-0 run cut the lead to two.

Back-to-back threes from Monmouth pushed the lead back to 41-33 just 1:22 later.  The Blue Devils missed a pair of shots on their end of the floor and the Hawks hit two straight to build the lead back to eight.  The Monmouth run reached 13-0 and the lead was 48-33 with 11:27 left.

Drakeford ended the run with a basket, but a Monmouth three gave the home team a 51-35 lead with just over 10 minutes left.  The run was 16-3 in favor of the Hawks.

Down 13, 58-45, a Mobley three cut the lead to 10 at 58-48 with 2:30 to play.  The Blue Devils would get no closer than 10 the rest of the way, as the Hawks posted their second straight victory in the Classic.

For the second straight game the Blue Devils outrebounded their opponent, this time they had 32 rebounds vs. 31 for the Hawks.  Freshman Kevin Seymour, who made the first start of his career on Saturday, had seven points and a team-high six rebounds.  He had a pair of assists.  Five Blue Devils had at least four rebounds in the game.  Junior Corey Barrett also added five.

The Blue Devils will complete the NABC CBE Hall of Fame Classic on Sunday again Bethune-Cookman beginning at 2 p.m.