Men's Basketball Stopped at Fordham Saturday

The Central Connecticut men's basketball team dropped a road contest at Fordham, 86-54, on Saturday at Rose Hill Gymnasium in The Bronx, NY. The Rams used a swarming defensive effort to erase an early Blue Devils lead and take control of the game.

With the loss, CCSU falls to 0-7 overall. Fordham improves to 6-1.

Central took an early 6-4 lead on six straight points from junior Khalen Cumberlander before the Rams got back-to-back trifectas from Jon Severe and Mandell Thomas as part of an 8-0 spurt to take the lead for good..

A dunk by freshman Malik Toppin would get CCSU within 18-14 at the 12:16 mark. Fordham responded with another 8-0 run and held the Blue Devil to two field goals over the final 9:29 of the half and used a 17-3 run to take a 47-23 lead at the intermission.

Central was held to just three field goals in the first 10:02 of the second half as Fordham pushed its lead to as much as 73-34 with 9:10 left.

The Blue Devils went on a 10-0 run late in the half. Baskets from sophomores Mustafa Jones and Kevin Seymour and back-to-back three-pointers from Austin Nehls cut the Fordham lead to 76-51 with 3:16 to play. The Rams outscored CCSU 10-3 the rest of the way to close out the scoring.

Cumberlander, Nehls and Toppin led the CCSU scoring with nine points apiece. Nehls and Toppin grabbed four rebounds apiece to lead the Blue Devils. Seymour and senior Brandon Peel each had a team-high four assists.

The Rams had five players in double-figures led by Mandell Thomas and Antwoine Anderson with 12 points each. Ryan Canty led Fordham with seven rebounds.

Fordham forced 26 turnovers, which led to 34 points. The Rams also limited CCSU to 38.3 percent from the field, while shooting 53.3 percent from the floor overall.

The Blue Devils return to action on Tuesday, Dec. 8, with a 6:00 p.m. game at Rutgers.