Men's Basketball Travels to Fordham Saturday

The Blue Devils play second of three straight road games.

December 4, 2015

The Central Connecticut men's basketball team will travel to Fordham for a 4:00 p.m. game on Saturday at Rose Hill Gym. The Blue Devils will be in search of a win after falling, 82-64, at Brown on Dec. 2. Junior Khalen Cumberlander led CCSU with 13 points. The Rams are coming off a 73-57 win over St. John's on Wednesday and have won five straight.

The teams are meeting for just the second time. Central won the only previous meeting, 75-69, on Dec. 3, 1998 in Hartford, CT, at the Phoenix Classic.

GAMEDAY INFORMATION
CCSU (0-6) at Fordham (5-1) | 4:00 PM | Video | Live Stats | Listen (News Radio 1410/ESPN Radio 1300)

Home of the Blue Devils Turns 50

• Dec. 4, 2015 marked the 50th anniversary of the first game at CCSU's current home court in Harrison J. Kaiser Hall.

• Central defeated Coast Guard, 109-57, on Dec. 4, 1965, in front of a crowd of 3,600 fanst. Bob Plosky scored the first points and teammate Gene Reilly led the Blue Devils with 21 points.

• Head coach Bill Detrick led CCSU to a 23-3 record in 1965-66. William H. Detrick Gymnasium was named in his honor in 1991.

Peel Leads NEC Returnees

• Not only is forward Brandon Peel the only senior for CCSU, but he is among the returning senior stats leaders of the Northeast Conference.

• Peel is the NEC's active scoring leader with 692 career points and he is just one of eight players in the league to enter the season with at least 500 points.

• With three double-doubles thus far, Peel is unsurprisingly the league's active career leading rebounder with 672 boards in his career.

• Peel is also the NEC's active leader with 140 blocked shots.

Cumberlander's Consistency

• Junior Khalen Cumberlander is Central's leading scorer at 15.3 points per game and 7th in the Northeast Conference.

• Cumberlander nearly notched a triple-double in the opener with 19 points, 12 rebounds and eight assists.

• The double-double was the first of Cumberlander's career and he notched career-highs in both rebounds (12) and assists (8).

• Cumberlander has scored in double-figures in every game this season and dating back to last season and has a streak of 10 straight games dating to last season.

Nehls Knocking Down Treys

• Freshman Austin Nehls hit five three's against Binghamton, the first Blue Devil to do so since Matt Mobley at RMU on 2/14/15.

• Nehls is shooting 40% from the arc, which is 5th in the Northeast Conference and has 16 three-pointers (2.7/game) to rank 2nd in the league.

History - 1,074 Wins

• This season marks the 79th season of Central basketball.

• CCSU's first year of competition was the 1934-35 season under coach Harrison J. Kaiser, whom the athletic building is named after.

• Central carries an overall record of 1,074-873 for a .552 winning percentage.

Dickenman in Overtime

• Central fell to Hartford, 92-83, in double-overtime in the opener.

• CCSU has played 32 overtime game under head coach Howie Dickenman and have a 22-10 record in 20 seasons.

• CCSU had won five straight OT games dating to Jan. 26, 2012 (56-58, Monmouth).

Sharing The Scoring

• Central has had at least three players score in double-figures in four games to open the season, including each of the last three.

• Khalen Cumberlander has scored 10+ in all six games.

• With five players scoring in double figures against Hartford, it marked the first time since Nov. 26, 2013 against Rider that Central had five players score in double-figures.

Double-Doubles

• Senior Brandon Peel posted his third double-double of the season with 12 points, 13 rebounds vs. Binghamton.

• In his last 11 games, Peel has six double-doubles. He had eight last season and now has 15 in his career.

• Junior Khalen Cumberlander posted the first of his career with 19 points and 12 rebounds against Hartford.

Early NEC Stat Leaders

• Brandon Peel is grabbing an NEC-high 9.3 rebounds and is 4th with 1.5 blocked shots per game.

• Khalen Cumberlander is 7th in the league in scoring at 15.3 points per game and 1st in assists (4.2).

• Austin Nehls is 5th in 3-pt FG pct (40.0) and 2nd with 2.7 three pointers per game.

• Cumberlander (2nd, 37.5) and Nehls (7th, 33.2) both rank among the league's top 10 for minutes played.

Peel Again

• With 13 boards vs. Binghamton senior Brandon Peel has grabbed double-digit rebounds in 25 career games.

• Peel sits atop the rebounding leaderboard for the Northeast Conference with 9.3 per game.

• Peel grabbed a career-high 18 rebounds against Robert Morris on Jan. 10, 2015. He had 11 rebounds at the break.

Starting Five

• Through six games, CCSU has experimented with four different starting lineups.

• Nine different players have started at least one game for the Blue Devils, including five players in their first year at CCSU.

• Khalen Cumberlander, Jahlil Nails, Austin Nehls, Brandon Peel and Tidell Pierre have started the last two games, just the second time CCSU has had the same lineup in consecutive games.

Shot Blockers

• Central ranks 2nd in the Northeast Conference with 4.33 blocked shots per game - led by senior Brandon Peel (4th, 1.5).

• Peel recorded five blocks in the opener and has pushed his career total to 140 blocks, fifth all-time at CCSU.

• Joe Efese (150) is next up for Peel on the career list.

• Freshman Malik Toppin averages 1.0 blocks per game and had three rejections in 16 minutes against Maine.

Dickenman Milestone

• Head Coach Howie Dickenman, now in his 20th season at his alma mater, reached two milestones in a win over UMBC last year.

• Dickenman became the second coach in school history to record his 275th victory, while at the same time he recorded his 150th career home victory with the win over the Retrievers.

• Dickenman trails only his former head coach Bill Detrick in career wins. Detrick won 468 games in 29 seasons.

Central and the Three-Point Shot - A New Streak Begins

• The Blue Devils had a streak of 557 games with a three-pointer stopped at Wagner on Jan. 31, 2015.

• Central had made a three in every game since February 29, 1996 at the University of Missouri-KC in a 76-69 loss, before going 0-for-6 vs. the Seahawks, marking the first time under head coach Howie Dickenman CCSU did not make a three.

• CCSU has hit a three-pointer in each of the 14 games since having its streak snapped.

Up Next:

• Central will travel to Rutgers on Tuesday, Dec. 8, for the first meeting between the schools.

• CCSU will be playing a Big 10 school for the seventh straight season, dating back to playing to Northwestern on Dec. 22, 2009.