By Bill Cloutier, Assistant Sports Editor

HAMDEN — There are times when the Quinnipiac men’s basketball team looks a bit vulnerable in the Northeast Conference. The majority of the time, however, it appears unmatched.

Quinnipiac was a bit of both on Sunday, but when it was good, it was dominant.

Trailing at the half for the first time in a month, Quinnipiac was a blur offensively after the break and ran away from Central Connecticut State 75-62 before 2,034, the largest crowd of the season at the TD Bank Sports Center.

“I said to (Quinnipiac assistant coach) Scott Burrell that they’re the best overall team in the conference,” CCSU coach Howie Dickenman said. “They’re solid, and if they keep winning in the league, they’ll get some playoff games in the friendly confines.”

Dickenman, who knows plenty about winning games, talked about the ingredients needed to win a conference title after watching the Bobcats sweep a pair of games from the Blue Devils this season for the first time in program history.

“To win a championship in a league, you need three of the top 10 players in the league (to win the title),” Dickenman said. “They have two of the top three or four players in the league.”

The first one is James Feldeine, who had a quiet 12 points on Sunday. The second is Justin Rutty, who was louder than a punk rock concert. The junior forward made 13 of 16 shots for 26 points and had 14 rebounds. Both were game highs.

“He was just too strong for us,” Dickenman said of Rutty. “We couldn’t handle him. The second half, they just seemed to penetrate at will. It came down to rebounding. We were even at half, and then they got 21 offensive rebounds.

“But when you play Quinnipiac, you fear Justin Rutty. He had his way with us. He was a one-man force.” Quinnipiac (13-6, 7-1 NEC) won for the seventh straight time and improved to 8-0 at home. Central, which was hammered by Quinnipiac 76-45 just over a week ago, led this time 28-25 at the half, and fell to 5-14, 2-6.

The Bobcats remained in a tie with Robert Morris for first place in the NEC with a three-game road trip on deck. They set the stage for the important stretch run with a sensational second half. Continued...

• 1
• 2
• See Full Story

After trailing by as much as eight in the first half, Quinnipiac began the second half on a 17-3 run and was never headed. Rutty scored six points in the run and James Johnson directed the fast-breaking attack to perfection. He finished with 13 points and six assists.

“We talked about being strong with the ball and finishing our shots in the second half,” Quinnipiac coach Tom Moore said. “To our credit, we really executed in the second half, and there were times we didn’t need to execute because our fast break was doing well, too.

“James Johnson is evolving into a very, very good transition point guard.”

Rutty, a preseason all-conference choice, had actually been fairly pedestrian lately. Moore had rested his power forward during recent blowouts. He knew that Rutty was ready to roll on Sunday.

“I always know when (Rutty) is ready to have a big game by the way he practices.” Moore said. “He absolutely abused Jamee Jackson in practice over the past few days, and that’s not easy to do.”

The Blue Devils got 12 points from both Markeys Deans and Shemik Thompson. Central unexpectedly got the back the services of top scorer Robby Ptacek. The guard was not scheduled to play for another couple of weeks because of an injury, but he was hounded by Quinnipiac defensive specialist Jeremy Baker and scored just five points.

Bill Cloutier can be reached at bcloutier@newhavenregister.com.

• 1
• 2
• See Full Story

• 1
• 2
• 3
• See Full Story

• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• See Full Story

• Return to Paging Mode