Box Score

NEW BRITAIN, Conn - Central Connecticut State took the lead at 25-23 in the second quarter and never looked back to beat Fairleigh Dickinson 71-59 on Saturday afternoon.

The two sides were close in the opening two quarters but the Knights were held scoreless for over four minutes in the first and three minutes in the second to allow the Blue Devils to take a 29-24 lead into the halftime intermission.

The Knights cut the deficit to two at 31-29 early in the third quarter and then to three later on the quarter but could not get the game tied. Central Connecticut (11-17, 8-9 NEC) got the lead back out to seven at 40-33 with 4:54 to play in third to thwart the Fairleigh Dickinson (11-19, 8-9 NEC) comeback attempt.

Erika Livermore (Nazareth, Pa./Nazareth Area) had 20 points -- 31st time scoring over 20 -- to lead all scorers. The redshirt-senior grabbed seven rebounds also. Kelsey Cruz (Chester, Va./Lloyd C. Bird) had 13 points (4-of-14). Brianna Thomas (Baldwin, N.Y./St. John the Baptist Diocesan) had nine points and seven rebounds and Anastasia Williams (Central Islip, N.Y./St. John the Baptist Diocesan) had seven points off the bench.

Central Connecticut extended the lead out to as many as 14 in the fourth quarter -- 62-48 -- before the Knights used a 7-0 run to get it back to seventh with 3:09 to play. Fairleigh Dickinson then scored two points for the rest of the game.

Emma Stoyan led the Blue Devils with 12 points. Aleah Epps and Kayla Miller were also in double figures for Central Connecticut.

The Knights are tied for fifth in the NEC standings with the Blue Devils, but the Knights lose the tiebreaker after losing twice to the Blue Devils this season.

Fairleigh Dickinson closes out the 2015-16 regular season at Bryant on Monday.