Men's Hoop Falls on the Road at Sacred Heart on Saturday Afternoon

The Central Connecticut men's basketball team saw its two-game win streak come to and end on Saturday afternoon in Fairfield, CT, dropping a 77-69 decision at Sacred Heart. The Blue Devils are now 10-11 overall and 6-5 in Northeast Conference play after the loss. Sacred Heart improves to 10-11 overall and 7-4 in league play. The Blue Devils return home on Thursday night to host St. Francis (PA) and will play six straight NEC games at home in February. Thursday's game will be televised live on Cox Sports Television and the Connecticut Sports Network.

The Pioneers scored the first five points of the game but the Blue Devils responded with an 12-4 run to take a 12-9 lead with 13:11 to play before the half. The Pioneers answered with a run of their own, this time it was 11-4, and they led 20-16 with under eight to play.

Senior Marcus Palmer and sophomore Ken Horton combined to score 17 of the first 18 points of the game for CCSU. A Palmer basket on a feed from sophomore Shemik Thompson made it 20-18.

After the Blue Devils cut it to 24-22 the Pioneers answered by scoring eight of the next 10 points to take their largest lead of the first half, 32-24. Sacred Heart led 34-28 at the half. They made five threes to just one for the Blue Devils. Each team turned the ball over eight times before the break.

Palmer hit a three on the first possession of the second half for the Blue Devils to cut the lead to three. With a 45-40 lead the Pioneers scored seven of the next nine points to lead 52-42 with 11:32 to play. Down by 10, a three by Thompson cut it to 54-47. Following a free-throw by Sacred Heart Thompson hit his second three of the game to make it a five point game, 55-50. The Pioneers built the lead back to 10 at 64-54 with 6:10 to play.

Freshman Robby Ptacek, the best free-throw shooter in the league, hit three after being fouled shooting a three and made the score 64-59 with 4:30 to play. Following a Pioneer bucket Thompson hit a pair of free-throws to keep it at five. A pair of SHU free-throws made it 70-63 and Thompson missed the front end of a one-and-one Sacred Heart built it back to nine at 72-63 on a layup by Chauncey Hardy.

Four Blue Devils scored in double-figures on the day led by 18 by Horton. Thompson had 16 and Palmer added 14. Horton also added eight rebounds in the loss.

The Blue Devils are in action again at home on Thursday night hosting St. Francis (PA) at 7 p.m. The game will be televised live on Cox Sports Television and the Connecticut Sports Network. You can also watch and listen to the action online and listen on the CCSU ESPN Radio Network.

CCSU will not leave the state of Connecticut for the remainder of its league schedule. They will play six straight conference home games followed by the season-finale at Quinnipiac on Feb. 28.