Blue Devils Drop Third Straight on the Road at Mount St. Mary's

The Central Connecticut men's basketball team lost its third straight game, dropping a 85-58 decision on the road at Mount St. Mary's on Thursday night. Junior guard Shemik Thompson led the offense with 22 points, including 20 in the first half. It marked his fourth 20-point game of the season. With the loss the Blue Devils fall to 9-17 overall and 6-9 in Northeast Conference play. The Mount improves to 12-14 and 9-6 in the NEC with their seventh straight win.

Central went down 12 early, following a 14-0 run by the Mount covering a three minute span. They led 27-15 with 9:04 on the clock before Thompson and the Blue Devils ran off a 10-0 run to climb to within two at 29-27. Thompson scored 16 straight points for the Blue Devils over a five minute stretch. He hit his first 10 shots from the field to lead the Blue Devils.

Thompson had 20 at the half but the Blue Devils trailed 40-35 at halftime. Central hit 16-of-25 from the field and 3-of-7 from three. The 64 percent shooting marked the best shooting first half of the season for the Blue Devils. The Mount made 15-of-28 from the floor and 4-of-6 from three. Central held a 15-9 advantage on the boards but turned the ball over 13 times and trailed by five.

The Blue Devils scored the first basket of the second half but the Mount scored 11 straight points to open up a 51-37 lead with 15:44 to play. The Mount run reached 25-3 and they took a 65-40 lead with just over seven minutes to play.

Central struggled from the field in the second half, making just two of their first 12 shots from the field and scoring just five points in the first 10+ minutes. The Blue Devils turned the ball over 21 times in the game, leading to 32 points by the Mount.

Thompson led the Blue Devils with 22 points. Freshman Joe Efese added 15 in the loss and also grabbed five rebounds.

The Blue Devils return to action on Saturday night at 7 p.m. at Wagner.