Men's Basketball Downed at Rutgers on Tuesday Night

The Central Connecticut men's basketball team was outscored by Rutgers, 79-37, on Tuesday night at The RAC in Piscataway, NJ. The Blue Devils were held to a season-low shooting night as the Scarlet Knights pulled away for the non-conference win.

CCSU slipped to 2-5 overall and RU is now 8-1.

Consecutive layups by senior Tidell Pierre got Central within 17-13 midway through the opening half before the Scarlet Knights started to pull away.

Rutgers closed the first half on an 18-6 run over the last 5:48 of the period and limited CCSU to just one field goal in its last seven attempts. A tip-in by Mike Williams just before the intermission gave the Scarlet Knights a 42-21 lead at the break.

Junior Mustafa Jones hit a jumper and sophomore Austin Nehls hit a three-pointer on back-to-back possessions for CCSU to make it 47-29, but that would be as close as the Blue Devils would get the rest of the way. 

The Scarlet Knights would come back with six straight points and pushed its lead to 53-29 on a dunk by Deshawn Freeman with 12:24 to play.

Rutgers would hold CCSU without a field goal for over six minutes and use a 16-0 run to build its largest lead of the night. A jumper by freshman Chris Williams would end the run and account for the final margin.

Nehls led Central with nine points, while Pierre finished with six points and a team-high seven rebounds. The Blue Devils were outrebounded, 37-32, but did hold an 11-4 edge on the offensive glass. CCSU was held to 25.0 percent (14-of-56) shooting overall and committed 22 turnovers.

Nigel Johnson led four RU players in double-figures with 16 points. The Scarlet Knights shot 35-of-54 (64.8 percent) overall for the game.

The Blue Devils travel to Duquesne for a 2:00 p.m. tipoff on Saturday, Dec. 10.