Big Second Half Leads WBB to NEC Tournament Win
CCSU will host St. Francis Brooklyn on Wednesday night at 7 p.m.
The Central Connecticut women's basketball team won its first round Northeast Conference Tournament game on Sunday, topping #8 seed LIU Brooklyn 72-51 in New Britain. The Blue Devils, the top seed in the tournament, advance to host St. Francis Brooklyn on Wednesday night at 7 p.m. in Detrick Gymnasium.
HIGHLIGHTS
The Blue Devils and Blackbirds were tied 40-40 with 15:58 left in the second half before the Blue Devils put on a show in the final 16 minutes of the game. Central went on a 13-0 run to build a 53-40 lead over the next four minutes of action. The run would reach 19-1 before LIU made its first basket in over 10 minutes at the 5:49 mark of the second half.
Central would go on to the 72-51 win, holding the Blackbirds to 11 points in the final 16 minutes of the game. LIU would shoot just 5-of-24 from the field after halftime and finished the game shooting 16-of-50, good for 32 percent.
Four Blue Devils scored in double-figures in the win, led by 20 from senior Kaley Watras on 7-of-9 shooting and 3-of-4 from three. She hit a pair of threes during the big for the Blue Devils in the second half.
Senior Amanda Harrington added 14 points on 5-of-8 shooting and was a perfect 4-of-4 from the line, while adding five rebounds. Freshman Camden Musgrave added 12 points, including a pair of threes, and sophomore Aleah Epps had 11 points and four boards to go along with four steals.
The balanced attack of CCSU this season, they had only one player average in double-figure points, was apparent as junior Kayla Miller had nine points and nine boards in 21 minutes of action. Junior Tejahne Malone, who led the Blue Devils in scoring this season, did not score in the win, but grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds.
LIU Brooklyn was led by Sophie Bhasin, an All-Conference selection this season, with 13 points and six rebounds. She was the only Blackbird to reach double-figures in the game.
Central advances and will host St. Francis Brooklyn, the #5 seed who upset #4 Sacred Heart on Sunday, on Wednesday night at 7 p.m. in Detrick Gym. The game will air live on ESPN3.
POST-GAME QUOTES
CCSU Head Coach Beryl Piper:
"Playing LIU you know they are such an athletic team and they play so hard for 40 minutes, I was just really proud of the girls. The game was close for a long time and we just stuck with the game plan and we were able to go on a run in the second half to break it away…but LIU has been a tough team all year…I said all year they didn't win a ton of games but they were in so many games it was not an easy game for us to play. I was just happy that we came away with a win and we got that first game monkey off our back."
"Our seniors played really well today, Amanda (Harrington) was 5-for-8 shooting and Kaley (Watras) was 7-for-9, they shot the ball really well and kind of what we expect from our seniors."
"It's all about being a team, it's about everyone getting it done and just continuing to do that. Now it's just one game at a time."
"Defensively, we just did such a great job in the second half and we held them to 20% shooting and during that time we made a lot of great defensive plays that allowed us to get out in transition and get some easy baskets."
Senior Kaley Watras on the start of the game for CCSU:
"Adrenaline was definitely running at an all-time high (at the beginning of the game), but we went out there we didn't start off slow. We started off pretty well which we have struggled with before."
Senior Amanda Harrington on her team winning the rebound battle:
"Getting rebounds against a really good athletic team like LIU is huge for us, allowing us to push from the defensive end to the offensive end."
LIU Coach Gail Striegler
"I thought we played a good first half and then they took us out of our game in the second half in the man-to-man. They're one of those teams that once they get started I think they scored three three's and two two's and we didn't score in that time frame. We did not do a good job of when they went through that scoring spree of coming down and working on our offense. We jacked up quick shots and you can't do that against a really good team. They did a great good job on the boards. I knew coming in that whoever won the battle on the boards was going to have a great chance to win the basketball game and they dominated us on the boards. I think that had a lot to with because they are just a very hard team to play that has so many different pieces that can give every night and somebody else can score."
