Mount Tops Men's Hoop on Thursday Night

The Central Connecticut men's basketball team dropped its seventh straight game and fell to 2-14 overall on the season and 0-3 in Northeast Conference play with a 82-51 road loss at Mount St. Mary's on Thursday night.  The Mount improves to 5-9 overall and 1-2 in the NEC with the victory.

The Blue Devils were led by senior Faronte Drakeford who posted his second double-double of the season with 12 points and a career-high 17 rebounds in the loss.  Sophomore Matt Mobley and freshman Shakaris Laney each added eight points in the loss.  Freshman Kevin Seymour had a career-high seven assists to go along with seven points.

The Blue Devils will return home on Saturday to host Robert Morris at 3:30 p.m. in the second game of a doubleheader.  The women will also play RMU at 1 p.m. in Detrick Gym.

Mount scored the first 10 points of the game and then led 22-10 with just under 12 minutes to play in the first half.  The Blue Devils cut the lead to 24-17 with a quick 5-0 run, but 12 straight points from the Mount gave the home team a 36-17 lead with 5:20 to play. 

The run to end the first half was 18-6 over the final nine minutes and the Mount led 42-23 at the half.  They hit 6-of-17 from three and 17-of-32 from the field in the half to build the 19 point lead.  Seven different players scored and the Mount bench had 26 points.

Central was just 7-of-25 from the field and 2-of-8 from three in the half.  Seymour and Mobley each had seven and were 5-of-11 from the field.  The rest of the team shot 2-of-14.  Drakeford had four points, all from the free-throw line, but grabbed eight boards. 

The Mount lead quickly reached 26 in the second half as they forced a pair of quick CCSU turnovers and scored 12 quick points.  The lead reached 73-38 with under eight minutes to play in the half as the Mount continued to shoot well from the floor, hitting 11 of their first 20 in the half, including three more threes.  The Blue Devils were 6-of-18 and missed all four of their three-point attempts in the first 12 minutes.

Drakeford's 17 rebounds were a career-high and marked the third straight game with 10 or more boards for the senior.  He added 12 points for his second double-double of the season.  Laney and Mobley each had eight.  Laney had a pair of threes, and his eight points were a career-high.  Seymour had a career-high seven assists to go along with seven points.

The Blue Devils shot 31.6 percent from the field hitting 18-of-57 and 4-of-18 from three.  They had seven assists, all from Seymour, and 14 turnovers that led to 24 Mount points.  The Mount turned the ball over just four times in the game.  They outscored the Blue Devils 42-16 in the painr.

The Blue Devils return home for three straight games beginning Saturday at 3:30 p.m. vs. Robert Morris.