Box Score NEW BRITAIN – Phil Gaetano's 30 foot three point effort at the buzzer hit off the back rim as the Sacred Heart University men's basketball team dropped an overtime thriller to Central Connecticut State, 76-73, on Saturday afternoon at the William H. Detrick Center. The Blue Devils, who did not lead in the second half until there were 29 seconds left, closed regulation on a 7-1 run over the final 2:08 to force the extra period, and Matt Mobley converted a driving three point play with 29 seconds remaining that ultimately proved to be the game winner. Cane Broome led the Pioneers with 17 points and hit 1-2 from the line with seven seconds in regulation to tie the game at 66. Gaetano registered his second career double double with 12 points and 11 assists in the loss that drops SHU to 13-16 and 7-9 in the Northeast Conference. Mobley scored a game high 23 points, 16 of which came after the first half, as CCSU wins its second straight and is now 5-24 and 3-13 in the league.
Tevin Falzon's free throw to convert a three point play with 2:30 left gave Sacred heart a 65-59 lead. Central began its comeback 22 seconds later when Faronte Drakeford converted a layup. After a Pioneer offensive foul, Mobley then drained a deep three to get within one. SHU came up empty again, this time the result of a block, giving the Blue Devils the ball down one with time winding down. With 28 seconds remaining, Khalen Cumberland drove and found a wide open Brandon Peel under the basket to give CCSU the lead, 66-65. Broome was fouled the next possession down the court, making 1-2 to tie the game. Mobley's deep three point effort hit off the front rim to send the game to overtime.
After De'von Barnett opened the overtime scoring just 13 seconds in with a layup, Central Connecticut came back with the next four, as Peel scored on a layup and jumper on back to back possessions. Barnett's mid range jumper would tie it back up with 3:39 on the clock. The two teams would then trade turnovers before Drakeford converted a driving three point play to go up three, 73-70, with just 2:24 remaining. Broome came right back just nine seconds later with wide open triple to tie the game. There were then four consecutive misses, two by each team, before Mobley scored the game-winner. After a Pioneer miss, Central failed to convert the front end of a one and one, which set up Gaetano's potential tying three out of a timeout.
Sacred Heart shot just 39.7 percent from the field (29-73) in comparison to Central's 47.9 percent (34-71) mark. The Pioneers did make 10-24 (41.7 percent) from beyond the arch, a season-high in makes, but were 3-13 after the first half. Central went 5-19 (26.3). The two teams combined to take only 15 free throws, with SHU making two more, 5-3. Central Connecticut won the battle on the boards, 45-39, and also outscored Sacred Heart, 50-34, in the paint.
With his first basket, a three pointer, of the game, Steve Glowiak became the 39th player in Sacred Heart history to surpass 1,000 points for his career. He finished the game with nine points. With the eleven assists, Gaetano became the fourth active player in the NCAA with 700 career assists, and currenlty sits at 704 over the past four years. Evan Kelley and Barnett joined Broome and Gaetano in double figures with 14 and 13 respectively. Falzon led SHU with 11 rebounds.
Going into the locker room up six, SHU led by at least three throughout much of the second. The Pioneer lead got as high as eight, 42-34, after Barnett's three point play with 15:34 left. It again reached eighth when Broome hit a jumper 2:15 later. The Blue Devils finally tied it up, at 52, when Mobley hit a three pointer, capping five straight points, with 7:58 to go.
The two teams traded baskets before Sacred Heart scored six straight. The final four came from Barnett, as his tip in with 4:19 showing gave the Pioneers a 62-56 lead. The lead again reached six 1:04 later when Kelley nailed a jumper. Greg Andrade answered that with a three pointer just 19 seconds after before Falzon converted the three point play to put the Pioneers up six once again.
Both Peel and Drakeford recorded double doubles. Drakeford finished with 18 points and 11 boards, while Peel added 14 and game-high 14 caroms himself. Cumberlander contributed ten points.
Six of SHU's first seven baskets were from beyond the arch, as the two teams battled to nine lead changes and five ties throughout the first half. Central twice jumped out to a three point lead, first after scoring six straight, capped by Cumberlander's layup with 12:21 remaining to bring the score to 12-9. After the Pioneers scored five straight, including Glowiak's milestone triple, the Blue Devils answered right back with five of their own. Mobley's three pointer with 9:51 to go again made the lead three, 17-14.
Glowiak tied the game with another three twenty seconds later sparking a 16-4 Sacred Heart run. Cumberlander momentarily regained the lead for Central, as did Mobely following yet another Glowiak trifecta, but from there, the Pioneers scored ten unanswered. Broome's three point basket, SHU's seventh of the half, pushed the lead to a game-high nine, 30-21, just 1:02 before the break. Drakeford sparked CCSU going into the half, scoring five in a row himself, including a transition layup that led to a three point play with just four seconds showing. Broome stole the momentum right back though, driving the length of the floor to beat the buzzer with a floater from the foul line, giving Sacred heart the six point advantage, 32-26.
Sacred Heart, which currently sits in eighth place in the NEC, will next take on Fairleigh Dickinson in a road contest next Thursday night at 7 pm. The Knights are in last place in the league after falling at Mount St. Mary's earlier today, 75-64, to fall to 7-20 and 2-14 in the conference.
