March 2, 2008

Final Stats

FAIRFIELD, CT - Central Connecticut senior guard Tristan Blackwood spoiled senior day for Sacred Heart as he poured in a game-high 32 points to help the Blue Devils defeat the Pioneers 100-87 in the final regular season game for both teams.

The two teams, that split a pair of meetings this season, will meet again Thursday night in the first round of the NEC Tournament at 7 pm in the Pitt Center. SHU, 16-13 overall and 13-5 in the NEC, is the #3 seed, while CCSU, 14-15 and 10-8, is the #6 seed.

A Corey Hassan three with 10:51 to go in the first half gave Sacred Heart a 20-13 lead. A layup by Aaron Hall for Central with 8:00 left tied the game at 25-25 and the two teams traded buckets and the lead for the remainder of the half.

A Blackwood three with under a minute left gave the Blue Devils a 44-43 lead and they would never trail again. A Ken Horton putback at the buzzer gave Central a 46-43 lead at the intermission.

The Blue Devils used a 12-3 run over the first four minutes of the second half to open up a 58-48 from which SHU would never recover.

"They scored the ball and were clicking on all cylinders and when they score like that you better do something and we were ineffective defensively," said head coach Dave Bike.

Central shot a blistering 66 percent (37-56), including 8-15 from three-point range. In addition to Blackwood's total, Central got 24 from Marcus Palmer, 17 from Horton and 12 from Joe Seymore.

"They shot a good percentage in the 1st half and 73 % in the second half," said Bike. "We have a competitive conference it's not like those bigtime schools that lay out schedules that best suits them in November and December. We all are the same here so we know we have to be ready for this game on Thursday."

Sacred Heart, which lost consecutive games for the first time since late November, was led by senior Brice Brooks with 19 points. Hassan finished with 16, while Chauncey Hardy and senior Gene Pettway had 11 apiece. Senior Drew Shubik finished with eight assists.

"We have to bounce back from this game," said Brooks. "We have another one Thursday and we have to pick up our defense, obviously, when the other team scores 100 points. We didn't defend the ball well and we didn't stop penetration in the lane. That's something we have to concentrate and focus on in practice the next few days."