David Simmons
David Simmons
Seymore reaches 1,000 points; CCSU reaches NECs for 12th straight year
By Christopher Boulay
Shemik Thompson continued his stellar season, adding 21 points as the CCSU men’s basketball eliminated Saint Francis (NY) from postseason consideration 68-56.
The Blue Devils (12-17, 9-9) kept their postseason streak alive, sealing up the seventh seed after other conference games were completed later in the day. The streak, extended to 12 seasons is the longest in history. The last longest streak was five seasons.
“We won seven out of 10. I am sure people had written us off when we were 2-6, and I think we showed some courage,” coach Howie Dickenman said. “I guess you would say we bounced back off the mat and wound up getting a knockout at the end.”
Senior Joe Seymore scored 12 points and five rebounds, including a three pointer in the second half that made him the 31st player in school history to reach the 1,000 points milestone.
Seymore’s relief was obvious by the sound of his voice.
“It’s a big monkey off of my back. It gets it definitely out of my head. It is just a sigh of relief. I wanted to end this season on a good note in my senior year. I played very poorly last year.” Seymore said. “[It took] hard work, faith and confidence. Thank you to the fans who supported me through the years and never turned their back on me.”
Trailing by as many as 10 during the second half, CCSU surged back, with the help of Thompson, who continued his style of getting hot in the latter part of the game, scoring 18 second half points. The Blue Devils erased the huge deficit by going on a 14-3 run.
“He’s carried us in the second half in most of these games,” Seymore said about his teammate. “He stepped up big today.”
During the run, Thompson completed a play that showed off his individual talent, driving to the hoop hard and making an extremely difficult layup, flying between the Terriers defense.
“I wouldn’t consider it wild, I’d consider it more smooth,” Thompson said with a laugh. “ It was instinct really. I was just trying to make a move. That’s it.”
Stefan Perunicic led the way for the Terriers (11-18, 8-10) with 17 points. Akeem Bennett added 13 in a losing effort.
The Blue Devils trailed by three at the break in what was a very even first half, 27-24.
“It wasn’t anything like a Knute Rockne speech at the half,” Dickenman said. “No, I was calm, collected, and getting to the point where I am too old to be yelling and throwing chairs like I used to do. They still think I’m half crazy. So, they didn’t see me in my heyday.”
The Blue Devils scored 16 points off of turnovers, compared to SFNY’s nine. There were 14 lead changes in the game and six ties. CCSU outrebounded the Terriers 36-32. The Blue Devils also owned the charity stripe, with a percentage of 82.8 percent compared to SFNY’s 60 percent.
CCSU will play the Northeast Conference number two seed Robert Morris (20-11, 15-3) on Thursday at 7 p.m. in Moon Township, PA. in the first round of the NEC Tournament. In their only meeting of the season, CCSU fell to the Colonials by nine 69-60 on February 11.
