Peel's Double-Double Pushes Blue Devils Past UHart

The Central Connecticut men's basketball team earned its first victory of the 2014-15 season with a 56-47 victory over Hartford on Saturday night at The Chase Family Arena.  The Blue Devils (1-7) were led by a 16-point, 16-rebound double-double from junior Brandon Peel.  The Hawks fall to 5-4 on the season with the loss.  The double-double is the second of the season for Peel.  Central outrebounded the Hawks 42-37 including 28 from Peel and senior Faronte Drakeford.

Drakeford finished the game with a career-high 12 rebounds to go along with six points.  Sophomore Matt Mobley added 13 points and classmate Khalen Cumberlander added 11 to go along with three assists and two steals.

Central built a lead of 14 in the first half, leading 22-8, with just under nine minutes to play. The Hawks responded with seven straight points but the Blue Devils answered, scoring the next six, and took a 30-21 lead at halftime.

The Blue Devils shot 13-of-27 from the field before halftime, and 3-of-8 from three.  All three threes came from Mobley who had 10.  Peel also added 10 on 5-of-6 shooting.  Hartford shot just 7-of-25 from the field and 3-of-11 from three.  Each team turned the ball over seven times and the Blue Devils held an 18-4 advantage in points in the paint.

The Hawks cut the lead to five quickly in the second half on a pair of threes from Taylor Dyson.  The Blue Devils responded and built the lead back to 10 before the Hawks made another run. 

The third three of the half from Dyson cut the Blue Devil lead to 41-36 before a driving lay-up from Cumberlander put the Blue Devils back up seven.  With under eight minutes to play both teams struggled to get a good shot off and the Hawks eventually called a timeout to regroup.

The Blue Devils led 43-36 before the Hawks used a 6-1 run to cut the lead to 44-42 with 4:34 to play.  During the stretch the Blue Devils made just 2-of-6 from the free throw line, and following a Mobley free-throw they led 45-42 with 3:50 on the clock. 

A pair of free-throws from Peel, his 16th points of the game, put Central up 52-45 with under a minute to play.   Following a Hartford basket freshman Kevin Seymour hit one free-throw to make it 53-47.  Mobley hit two more free-throws to make it 55-47 with under 20 seconds to play.

Mobley finished with 13 points and Cumberlander contributed 11 to join Peel in double figures.

Drakeford had six points, but pulled down 12 rebounds to join Peel in a dominating effort on the glass.  Peel and Drakeford combined for 28 of CCSU's 42 rebounds in the game.

CCSU led for 39 minutes and never trailed the Hawks.

The Blue Devils will play at home for the first time this season on Wednesday night, hosting UMBC beginning at 7 p.m.