NEW BRITAIN, Conn. (Jan. 10, 2008) – Central Connecticut State senior Tristan Blackwood scored seven straight points late in the second half to help the Blue Devils secure a 75-64 Northeast Conference victory over visiting Saint Francis on Thursday night at Detrick Gymnasium.

The Red Flash were paced by redshirt junior Cale Nelson (Newville, PA /Big Spring) (Newville, Pa. / Big Spring) with 20 points, 3 assists, 2 steals and 2 rebounds, while redshirt junior Bassirou Dieng (Dakar, Senegal /Riverdale Baptist) (Dakar, Senegal / Riverdale Baptist) fell one rebound shy of a double-double with 15 points, 9 rebounds and 2 blocks, and redshirt sophomore Devin Sweetney (Washington, DC /Riverdale Baptist) (Washington, D.C. / Riverdale Baptist) added 13 points, 7 rebounds, 2 steals and 1 block.

Saint Francis dropped to 3-12 overall and 1-3 in the NEC, and will now head to Wagner for a 2 p.m. tip on Saturday afternoon. That game can be heard live on The EDGE 1400 AM, and a link to listen will be available at www.goRedFlash.com. CCSU improved to 6-10 overall and 2-3 in the NEC.

The Blue Devils closed the first half on a 14-4 run to turn a five point lead into a 45-29 halftime advantage. Blackwood played a pivotal role in the run as he scored eight of his 16 first half points over the final 5:37 of the frame.

The Red Flash cut that deficit to under 10 points on two different occasions in the second half, but CCSU answered each time.

First, SFU chipped away at a 50-33 deficit by going on a 15-7 run. Dieng started it with four straight points to make it 50-37 with 14:48 to play. Shemik Thompson sunk a jumper, but Nelson answered with a 3-pointer to cut CCSU's lead to 52-40 with 14:02 remaining. Thompson then made a layup and sophomore Mislav Jukic (Zagreb, Crotia/Life Center Acadamy) (Zagreb, Croatia / Life Center Academy) nailed his first 3-pointer of the season to make it 54-43 with 12:38 to go. Blackwood answered with a three at the other end, but Sweetney came right back with a 3-pointer from the corner to move the score to 57-46, CCSU, with 11:38 remaining. Nelson then made a pair of free throws to pull the Red Flash within nine points, 57-48, with 10:35 left.

However, Ken Horton came right back down the other end and made a 3-pointer to open the Blue Devils' lead to 12 points, 60-48, with 10:08 on the clock. Horton then made one of two free throws to make it a 13-point ballgame, and Dieng made his first long-range shot of the season to pull SFU within 10, 61-51. The Red Flash got a defensive stop, but missed a jumper and CCSU made a 3-pointer at the other end to make it 64-51 7:18 to play.

Saint Francis then went on a 5-0 run to cut the deficit to eight points at 64-56 with 5:45 remaining. But Blackwood turned up the heat by scoring the game's next seven points on a 3-pointer and a pair of layups to put the game out of reach at 71-56 with 4:08 remaining.

Jukic scored a season-high 8 points on 3-of-4 shooting for Saint Francis, and junior Grant Surprenant (Palatine, IL /Palatine) (Palatine, Ill. / Palatine) had 6 points, 2 rebounds and 1 steal off the bench.

Horton had 22 points, 10 rebounds and 7 blocks for the Blue Devils, and Joe Seymore added 13 points and 4 rebounds.

Postgame Quotes:

Head coach Bobby Jones

Opening Statement

“First of all, this is certainly a tough environment, and it's been a tough environment to get a victory for many years now. I think it's been since 1997-98 when Rob Krimmel, one of our assistants, was a sophomore and we won here. We've had some battles and we've had some really close games that came down to one or two possessions. It's been a tough place to get a victory. I told (CCSU head coach) Howie Dickenman after the game that it's a credit to him. This is a very young Central Connecticut team, probably the youngest team I've faced since I've been at Saint Francis. His team is certainly an extension of his personality. They are aggressive, they are tough-minded and they have a great player in Tristan Blackwood who once again took over the game. So I certainly want to give Central Connecticut credit for just a hard fought game for 40 minutes on their part. We played hard at times. Twice in the second half we cut it to eight, and we had an opportunity to cut it to six. Here is what I said to the team at halftime and I will say it to them again. Teams make runs. There's going to be points during the game where teams are going to raise their level. Whether they tighten their defense up, or start denying the wings, or they try to force your offense further out on the floor, that's when those tough-minded and aggressive plays come to part.”

“We made our runs here tonight. But we can't turn it over, we have to get a good offensive possession, we can't rush things, and we've got to understand time, score and possession. All that being said, tough-minded people are going to play you more aggressively when the game is on the line. And that's the thing that we have to continue to work on. Right now that's probably our biggest challenge. We're going to be in these games. We're going to make runs. We're going to cut it to two or three. At that point, that next possession, that next rebound or that next block out becomes very, very important. Those are the things we've talked about all year, and we have to continue to talk about them. We still have a lot of games left here. Certainly, we have to work hard for the next one. We've got a tough game on Saturday afternoon over at Wagner.”

What can you tell us about Wagner in looking forward to Saturday?

“Going into Saturday's game, they are probably the best basketball team in our conference right now. They have a senior laden team. They have physically strong people inside. This team has been together for four years. They have a good guard in Porter out front. They have a really strong player inside in Ulrich. He doesn't look like the same player that we faced two or three years ago as a freshman. He's really bulked up and become more of a man. When he started in this league, he was more of a face-up guy. Now he's scoring everything with his back to the basket. When you see him on Saturday afternoon with the weight and the strength that he has put on, you'll understand why. It's going to be a tough game. We'll get down there tonight, we'll talk about a few things that happened in this ballgame to try to learn from it. We'll regroup and get ready for the next one.”