BY Corey Johns
Senior Staff Writer
It was not a fun game to watch but UMBC got the job done against Central Connecticut State in front of the smallest crowd of the season as students are getting ready for finals. It was the 30th meeting between the two schools as they are familiar with one another due to UMBC’s days in the Northeast Conference.
With the win UMBC evened the all-time series and snapped a six game losing streak against the Blue Devils. Central Connecticut State kept it close until the five minute mark when Jay Greene sparked a 10-0 run to put UMBC up by 13 with just two minutes left. CCSU would not go away but UMBC finished with a 67-56 win.
“I thought we beat a very good and well coached Central Connecticut team,” said coach Randy Monroe. “It’s a tribute to our guys to show [the] sense of toughness that they showed particularly in the second half.”
The second half really picked up for UMBC. In the first half they only shot 38.5 percent from the floor and 16.7 percent from behind the arc, but both numbers picked up in the second half as they shot 60.9 percent from the floor and 75 percent from three point range.
“I told them we were taking quick shots and not playing the basketball and we were out of sync,” Monroe said. “Once we settled down and penetrated their defense we had more open shots and it really helped us.”
Having played 30 times and twice in as many years before this game, the two teams have a feel for what each team can do, and even though Central Connecticut State came into the game on a four game winning streak, UMBC came out on top.
“The two teams are definitely familiar with each other,” Monroe said. “Central is very capable of playing in the America East and again I like playing this game because it gets our guys ready for our conference because we play teams like Central.”
One big way for the guys to get ready is to play against Ken Horton who scored 21 points with 10 rebounds and is very comparable to Marques Blakely and John Holland in build and athleticism.
“He’s a terrific player,” Monroe said. “Our goal was to hold him to less that 21 points but he got his numbers. He’s very good and he’s only a sophomore. I’m not looking forward to playing against him the next few years but that’s what competition is all about.”
Having lost in a blow out against Towson just a few days prior, Monroe saw this game as a good bounce back from that.
“I simply said one thing- bounce back,” Monroe said. “I think you have to give Towson credit because they just played phenomenal basketball and shot the lights out and there wasn’t one thing we could do to stop that. I told my guys that you learn from winning and you learn from losing and it’s just one game.”
CCSU pressured UMBC a lot in the game and made them work hard, but eventually a 10-0 run in the second half ending with just over two minutes left was the difference and made it hard for CCSU to bounce back. But also free throws made a huge difference. UMBC went to the line 15 more times than CCSU and made 15 of their 20 shots.
The game was highlighted by Darryl Proctor who recorded another double-double with 17 points and 10 assists and Jay Greene who scored 14 points, but Justin Fry had his break out game of his career in the game scoring a career-high 16 points with 5 rebounds.
“It was terrific,” Monroe said. “Sometimes I get on Justin because he doesn’t know how good he can be but I think he did a good job today. He showed signed of aggressiveness, went in for rebounds, played with aggressiveness, that was something I was impressed with by Justin.”
On Saturday UMBC plays the granddaddy of them all in their non-conference schedule as they face the No. 3 team in the nation, Pittsburgh.
