Men's Basketball Drops Second Straight at Colgate on Monday Night

Sophomore Robby Ptacek scored 16 second half points but the Central Connecticut State University men's basketball team dropped its second straight game, 64-45, on Monday night at Colgate. With the loss the Blue Devils fall to 4-8 overall on the season. Junior Shemik Thompson added eight points, five rebounds and three assists for Central in the loss. They return to action on Thursday night at Monmouth as they continue league action against the Hawks beginning at 7 p.m.

Colgate took an early 5-2 lead but the first three of the game by Rosario and a fast break bucket by Thompson gave the Blue Devils their first lead, 7-5, with just under 15 minutes left in the half. The Raiders responded with seven straight points over the next four minutes to take a 12-7 lead. The Blue Devils turned the ball over seven times in the game's first 10 minutes.

The Blue Devils hit just 3-of-17 from the field to begin the game and both teams struggled from the floor offensively in the first 14 minutes. Colgate led 17-7 with 5:00 on the clock as the Raider run stretched to 12-0.

Central cut the lead to 17-9 at 4:06 on the first field goal by freshman Jonathan Tull. The basket ended a streak of 10 straight misses over a span of 10:18 for the Blue Devils and ended the 12 point run for the Raiders.

Colgate led 19-11 at the half as neither team could get anything going offensively before the break. Central hit just 5-of-23 from the field before the break and held Colgate to 8-of-31 from the field. The 11 first half points and 21.7 percent shooting were the lowest of the season for the Blue Devils.

Central scored on its first two possessions of the second half and cut the lead to 19-15 with 19:05 on the clock. Ptacek scored his first basket of the game at 15:31 in the second half and made it 26-21. The lead stretched to 32-21 with six straight points by the Raiders.

Rosario hit his second three of the game to make it an eight point game at 12:44. After the lead went back to 10 Ptacek hit again to make it 34-26. He hit his first three of the game to make it 36-29 less than a minute later, but Colgate scored 10 straight to push the lead to 17, 46-29, their largest of the game to that point. A Thompson bucket stopped the run and gave the Blue Devils their first basket in four minutes.

Ptacek led the offense for the Blue Devils with 16 points, all of them coming in the second half. Thompson added eight points, five rebounds and three assists in the loss as Central fell for the second straight game to a team from the Patriot League.

The Blue Devils return to action again on Thursday night at Monmouth beginning at 7 p.m. They are 1-1 in Northeast Conference play this season.