New Haven visits Cent. Conn. St. following Smith’s 23-point outing

New Haven Chargers (6-8, 1-0 NEC) at Central Connecticut State Blue Devils (6-6, 0-1 NEC)

New Britain, Connecticut; Sunday, 1 p.m. EST

BOTTOM LINE: Cent. Conn. St. faces New Haven after Darin Smith Jr. scored 23 points in Cent. Conn. St.’s 84-78 loss to the Long Island Sharks.

The Blue Devils are 3-1 in home games. Cent. Conn. St. is fourth in the NEC in team defense, allowing 72.6 points while holding opponents to 42.6% shooting.

The Chargers have gone 1-0 against NEC opponents. New Haven gives up 67.4 points to opponents and has been outscored by 1.5 points per game.

Cent. Conn. St. makes 48.2% of its shots from the field this season, which is 4.0 percentage points higher than New Haven has allowed to its opponents (44.2%). New Haven averages 6.5 made 3-pointers per game this season, 2.6 fewer made shots on average than the 9.1 per game Cent. Conn. St. allows.

The Blue Devils and Chargers face off Sunday for the first time in conference play this season.

TOP PERFORMERS: Smith is averaging 20.3 points for the Blue Devils. Max Frazier is averaging 12.4 points, 6.7 rebounds and 2.3 blocks over the last 10 games.

Jabri Fitzpatrick is shooting 39.3% and averaging 12.6 points for the Chargers. Najimi George is averaging 1.0 made 3-pointers over the last 10 games.

LAST 10 GAMES: Blue Devils: 5-5, averaging 78.3 points, 31.6 rebounds, 15.7 assists, 6.6 steals and 5.0 blocks per game while shooting 48.9% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 74.5 points per game.

Chargers: 5-5, averaging 69.9 points, 32.2 rebounds, 14.3 assists, 8.3 steals and 3.1 blocks per game while shooting 45.1% from the field. Their opponents have averaged 64.0 points.

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The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar.