Men's Basketball Stumbles at Saint Joseph's on Thursday

The Central Connecticut men's basketball fell at Saint Joseph's, 83-66, on Thursday night in its final tuneup before conference play at Hagan Arena in Philadelphia, PA. The Hawks raced out of the gates building a quick lead and held off the Blue Devils throughout the night.

Jay Rodgers had 18 points to lead the Blue Devils in scoring. CCSU shot just 27-of-60 (.333) from the field overall, and 10-of-25 (.400) from three-point range. Central was 2-of-5 (.400) from the foul line.

Cameron Brown and Kacper Klaczek had 24 and 21 points, respectively, to lead a trio of Hawks in double digits. Saint Joseph's was 32-of-65 (.492) from the field and 12-of-31 (.387) from three-point range. The Hawks went 7-of-8 (.875) from three-point range.

The Blue Devils openANortheast Conference play at Saint Francis U. on Dec. 29.

GAME INFORMATION
Score: CCSU 66, SAINT JOSEPH'S 83
Records: CCSU (2-12), SJU (6-6, 0-0 A10)
Location: Hagan Arena | Philadelphia, PA

KEY MOMENTS

• Saint Joseph's outscored CCSU, 15-4 in the opening 3:39 of the contest. The Blue Devils opened the game shooting 2-of-3 from the field, but were hampered by three early turnovers.
• SJU would score 14 unanswered points over a six-minute span midway through the half and would build a 22-point advantage. The lead would grow to as much as 43-16 with just over a minute to play in the half, but Central got back-to-back buckets from Rodgers and Tre Breland to make it 43-20 at the intermission.
• Kellen Amos would score back-to-back jumpers to open the second half, but the Hawks would build their largest lead of the game at 52-24 with 17:00 to play. Central would continue to battle and hit 5-of-6 three-pointers during a six-minute stretch and trimmed the margin to 73-59 following a Breland trifecta.
• The Blue Devils were unable to get any closer, but outscored the hosts, 7-2, in the final 1:22 to settle the final margin.

QUOTABLE

"Our guys competed very hard tonight," said head coach Patrick Sellers. "We overcame some adversity and really got going in the second half. I thought we moved the ball really well after halftime, but give Saint Joe's defense credit, they pressured us and forced us into 16 turnovers."

NUMBER TO KNOW

46 – CCSU scored a season-high 46 points after halftime and outscored the Hawks by six points in the second half.

NOTES

• The teams were meeting for the first time.
• Rodgers scored in double-figures for the fifth straight game. He shot 7-of-14 overall and was 4-of-8 from three-point range in his 30 minutes of action.
• Nigel Scantlebury had a career-high nine assists to go with seven points, four rebounds and four steals.
• Tre Breland had personal-bests with eight points and nine rebounds in 25 minutes.
• Abdul Momoh contributed eight points and four blocked shots.
• The Blue Devils gave out 20 assists as a team and is averaging 17.3 per game over the past three contests.
• Following the intermission, Central shot 18-of-33 (.545) from the field and 8-of-16 (.500) on three pointers.

UP NEXT

The Blue Devils open Northeast Conference play at Saint Francis U. on Dec. 29.