By Max Lederman
There is no positive spin to a season-ending defeat. Not even an optimist can say the glass is half full for the Northeastern men’s basketball team, because the glass that was once filled to the brim with dreams of seeing NU on the biggest bracket is now empty.
The cup tipped over Saturday at Walter Brown Arena, when the Hartford Hawks upset the game favorite Huskies, 79-74, and relinquished those high hopes and deserving expectations to just a stain on the forgettable carpet of March Madness.
The Dogs are left with another loss that’s hard to swallow because this game wasn’t for a better seed, or a better record — the game was for the right to move on, and the Huskies came up short. The Huskies were heavy favorites going into their America East quarter final match up with the sixth-seeded Hartford Hawks, and with number one seed Boston University being upset by eighth seed Stony Brook there was basically a red carpet to the NCAA tournament laid out for NU. Then again, this is March, and the only sure thing about a sure thing is that it isn’t.
“It wasn’t from lack of effort,” said NU coach Ron Everhart. “It was just a bad game, and it’s just a shame it had to come in an elimination game.”
With just more than six minutes remaining in the game, NU found themselves down by 13, but sensing its season slipping through its fingers, the Huskies went on a 12-1 run to bring them within two points of the Hawks, 72-74. Marcus Barnes was the driving force behind the drive and throughout the game scoring seven of his career-high 36 in that span.
Unfortunately for the Huskies, the late drive was not enough as the referees took the ball out of their hands on a questionable flagrant foul call against Javorie Wilson with 26 seconds remaining in the game.
“Javorie was just trying to keep the guy from falling on the floor,” Everhart said. “I guess he’s guilty of being too nice.”
The Hawks hit all their crucial free throws as time winded down on the game and Northeastern’s season. NU’s leading scorer and first-team all-conference point guard, Jose Juan Barea, had a sub-par game scoring a season-low nine points before fouling out with 2:57 remaining in the game. His effort, however, was valiant after a Hartford defender broke his nose, forcing him to leave the game with what looked like a certain concussion only to return minutes later wearing the number 34, leaving his bloody number five on the side line.
“He’s a tough kid,” Everhart said. “He really wanted to play and win. Unfortunately, we couldn’t get over that hump at the end.”
As the first half began, the game looked to be what it was supposed to be: a Huskies blowout win, with NU taking a quick 25-11 lead mid way through the half.
And then, without warning, the Huskies defense seemed to vanish almost at the exact time the Hawks offense started to catch fire.
“They switched to zone and we took a few ill advised shots to try and break it,” Everhart said. “The shots created long rebounds which gave them fast break opportunities.”
Hartford scored 25 of the next 29 points to go up 36-29 with 6:50 remaining in the half. Instead of the Huskies bouncing back like everyone assumed they would, they fell deeper into the hole they dug for themselves and went into the half down 11 with the score 46-35. The Hawks shot 60 percent in the first half while NU shot just 41 percent from the floor.
While the Huskies shot a semi-respectable 6-19 (32 percent) from downtown in the first half, one of the main reasons they were unable to come back was their 0-11 three-point shooting in the second half.
“We’ve been good with three-pointers all year long,” Everhart said. “We didn’t have our best night shooting and didn’t adjust and try to take the ball down low.”
A problem the Huskies faced all season but were somehow able to overcome most nights was their poor free-throw shooting, and it came back to bite them on this night as they hit just 65 percent of their shots from the charity stripe, missing 13 freebees.
Hartford’s magic ran out on Sunday when they were eliminated by Vermont but, although the Hawks’ season lasted just one day longer than Northeastern’s, there are five Huskies who would do just about anything for one more game.
“That should’ve been us,” said senior forward Sylbrin Robinson. “But what can you do? Now it’s time to start thinking about life.”
Robinson, Wilson, Cornellius Wright, Jesse Dunn and Lateef Melvin all played their last college basketball games, but will not soon be forgotten.
“All those guys gave so much to this program on and off the court and displayed the toughness that any coach would want to build a program around,” Everhart said. “I wouldn’t trade them for the world.”
