The Central Connecticut men's basketball team plays at Duquesne on Saturday. Tipoff is slated for 2:00 p.m. The Blue Devils are playing their second game of a seven-game road swing. CCSU fell at Rutgers on Tuesday night to open the road trip and slip to 2-5 on the year. Duquesne is 4-6 under fifth-year head coach Jim Ferry. The Dukes lost at Robert Morris, 64-60, on Tuesday.
Bruce Biel (play-by-play) and Marc Robbins (analyst) will call the game for CCSU on News Radio 1410.
GAMEDAY INFORMATION
CCSU (2-5) at Duquesne (4-6) | 2:00 PM | A-10 Network | Live Stats | Listen (News Radio 1410) | Twitter: @KizerBlueDevil (in-game updates)
CCSU Notes | Duquesne Notes
Series Notes:
• First Meeting
CCSU Notes:
• Central has been unselfish with the ball to start the season and currently ranks second in the Northeast Conference with 14.7 assists per game. Freshman
Tyson Batiste leads the team with 3.43 assists.
• Sophomore
Austin Nehls (13.4 ppg) leads the team in scoring and ranks fourth in the NEC with a .462 shooting percentage from three-point range.
• Senior
Tidell Pierre has averaged 8.0 ppg and 6.0 rpg while shooting .615 from the field over the last two games. He leads the team with 5.9 rebounds per game.
• Senior
Khalen Cumberlander is averaging 10.9 points and shooting a career-best .389 from three-point range, while shooting .441 overall.
Duquesne Notes:
• Mike Lewis II averages 10.7 ppg and has been named A-10 Rookie of the Week three times. He is averaging 15.3 ppg over the last four games
• Nakye Sanders set career-highs for points (11), rebounds (16) and blocks (5) against Robert Morris. He is shooting .742 (23-31) from the field on the year.
• The Dukes' bench is averaging 23.5 points per game and has outscored the opponents' bench in seven of 10 games thus far.
• Darius Lewis (.480), Sanders (.742) and Jordan Robinson (.571) are giving DU an effective trio of centers. As a group they are shooting .579 (55-of-95) from the field.
Last Time Out
Central 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.
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.
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 were forced into 22 turnovers.
Up Next
CCSU will play its third straight road game, but stay in Connecticut with a trip to Yale on Dec. 13. Central is on its longest road swing since opening 2014-15 with eight straight (1-7). The Blue Devils open Northeast Conference action on Dec. 29 and Dec. 31 with road games at Wagner and St. Francis Brooklyn, respectively. CCSU will return home on January 5 against Sacred Heart.
Marshall To Appear on Greg Herenda Show
Head coach Donyell Marshall will be the gues on this week's edition of The Greg Herenda Show.
Tune in to listen on Sunday, December 11 at the new time of 7:30 a.m. on WFDU 89.1 FM, www.wfdu.fm and iHeartRadio.