Howie Dickenman Wins 200th Career Game at St. Francis (PA) on Saturday

The Central Connecticut men's basketball team finished the weekend trip to Western Pennsylvania with a 71-61 victory on the road at St. Francis (PA) on Saturday afternoon. The win is the 200th in the career of head coach Howie Dickenman, now in his 13th season. He also won his first career game against the Red Flash. Balanced scoring led the Blue Devils on the day led by 20 from sophomore Ken Horton. With the win the Blue Devils improve to 8-9 overall and 4-3 in Northeast Conference play. With the loss the Red Flash fall to 4-13 overall and 1-6 in league play. They play again on Thursday night at Mount St. Mary's at 7 p.m.

The Red Flash held the Blue Devils to only one field goal in the first 10 minutes of the game and led 18-7 with 10:17 on the clock. Horton made the only field goal for CCSU during that time but the Red Flash put the Blue Devils in the bonus early in the half with seven quick fouls. CCSU hit just one of its first five shots from the field and trailed by 11.

The Blue Devils responded with 18 straight points to take a 25-18 lead with under four minutes to play and ended the half scoring 26 of the final 30 points to take a 33-22 lead. During the run the Blue Devils hit 10-of-13 shots and 4-of-5 from three while St. Francis (PA) was just 2-for-10 from the floor and committed seven turnovers.

In the first half the Blue Devils shot 61.1 percent (11-of-18) from the field and 50.0 percent (4-of-8) from three but turned the ball over 10 times. Six of those came in the first 10 minutes of the game. The Red Flash shot 50 percent from the field (9-of-18) but missed eight of the final 10 shots before the break. They were just 1-of-7 from three in the half.

Central Connecticut opened the second half and stretched its lead to as much as 17 five separate times but five straight points by the Red Flash cut it to 51-39 with just over 10 minutes to play.

After the Red Flash cut it to eight junior Joe Seymore responded with a three from the left elbow to make it 54-43 with 7:44 on the clock. It was his second three of the game and it stopped a 9-0 run by the Red Flash.

St. Francis (PA) made another run and cut it to eight with under three minutes to play at 60-52 before Seymore hit a pair of free-throws to make it 10 with 2:22 on the clock. With a seven point lead Horton hit one of two free-throws to make it 63-55 with 1:45 on the clock. Following a Red Flash miss Horton grabbed the rebound and made two free-throws to push the lead back to 10. He continued to make free-throws to end the game and give the Blue Devils the 10-point win.

Horton led four players in double-figures with 20 while senior Marcus Palmer had 15, Seymore 14 and freshman Robby Ptacek had 13. Sophomore Tamir Johnson added nine points and six rebounds in the victory.

Dickenman, who became the second coach in school history to win 200 games, now posts a career record of 200-170. He was 12-41 in his first two seasons and is 188-129 in his last 11.

The Blue Devils are off until Thursday night when they travel to Mount St. Mary's for a game beginning at 7 p.m. Fans can hear the broadcast online and also on the CCSU ESPN Radio Network on ESPN Radio 1410 in Hartford and ESPN Radio 1300 in New Haven. The broadcast begins at 6:30 p.m.