Mount St. Mary’s rallies past CCSU in second half

Central Connecticut had an eight-point lead slip away in the second half in a 67-57 loss to Mount St. Mary’s in a Northeast Conference men’s basketball game Thursday night in New Britain.

The Blue Devils (2-9, 2-6) used an aggressive defense to keep the Mountaineers (5-5, 4-2) in check until midway through the second half, when a pair of Mount St. Mary’s scoring runs overtook them.

Trailing by eight, the Mountaineers used an 11-2 run to take a one-point lead.

After CCSU regained a four-point lead with 8:35 to play, Mount St. Mary’s scored 10 straight points to take the lead for good.

Junior Ian Krishnan had 12 points and sophomore Myles Baker scored 12 off the bench for the Blue Devils. Sophomore Jamir Reed grabbed a team-high seven rebounds to go with four assists.

CCSU shot 22-of-59 (.373) overall and 6-of-23 (.261) from 3-point range. The Blue Devils went 7-of10 (.700) from the free-throw line, but just 1-of-2 after halftime.

Damian Chong Qui led Mount St. Mary’s, scoring 17 of his 20 points in the second half. Josh Reaves (13), Malik Jefferson (12) and Mezie Offorum (10) also scored in double figures for the Mountaineers, who shot 23-of-45 (.511) overall and 9-of-19 (.474) from 3-point range.

The teams will meet again Friday at 4:00 p.m. Central used an early 11-0 run to build a 16-10 lead. Following a 3-pointer by Krishnan and a layup by sophomore Xavier Wilson, the Blue Devils took a six-point lead with 12:35 left in the half.

Mount St. Mary’s tied it at 18 before the Central defense sparked a 13-5 run over an almost six-minute stretch to take a 31-23 lead. A3-pointer by junior Nigel Scantlebury and a jumper by junior Tre Mitchell pushed the lead to eight with 2:16 to go. Mount cut the deficit to three before a pair of free throws by Scantlebury made it 33-28 at halftime. The Blue Devils made eight steals and forced 14 turnovers in the opening half.