By: Patrick McHugh, News Staff
NORFOLK, Va. – The men’s basketball team’s matchup against Old Dominion University (ODU) Wednesday made for a record-setting night. Unfortunately for the Huskies, none of the records were worth bragging about.
ODU topped Northeastern 49-34 in a game that set numerous records for offensive futility. The total of 83 combined points scored is the lowest single-game total in the 26-year history of the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA). NU scored 34 points, the fewest single-game total by any team, men’s or women’s, which has played in ODU’s Ted Constant Convocation Center since it opened in 2002. It was the fewest points scored by any Huskies basketball team since NU dropped a 36-30 decision at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst on Dec. 10, 1949.
Northeastern’s struggles allowed ODU head coach Blaine Taylor to collect his 199th win as coach of the Monarchs, making him the winningest coach in program history. The loss is Northeastern’s fourth in a row and drops the Huskies to 4-10 overall and 0-3 in the CAA.
“I just thought it was a rough outing for us tonight,” head coach Bill Coen said. “We showed signs of fatigue even in the first half. ODU’s defensive pressure made us work extremely hard for every look on the offensive end. Even when we got one, we didn’t get a quality look.”
The Huskies were challenged from the outset as senior captain Chaisson Allen, who leads the team in scoring at 16.3 points-per-game, stayed in Boston to rest a sore hamstring. Also missing on the trip was senior forward Vinny Lima, who sustained a foot injury during the team’s two-day tournament at the University of Central Florida Dec. 29 and 30. Coen said the team was awaiting the results of an MRI to determine the extent of his injury. Sophomore guard Alwayne Bigby, who is out for the season with a broken foot, stayed home as well. The trio of injuries left NU with nine players for the two-game Virginia swing.
Without their three most experienced players the Huskies were out-of-sync offensively. The team shot 14-of-42 from the floor and had only one player, sophomore guard Jon Lee, score in double-figures (11 points). At one point in the first half NU went 10:28 without scoring and trailed by 10 at halftime.
Despite the Huskies poor performance, the Monarchs could not seem to put the game away. NU found itself trailing 30-26 with 10:13 remaining, but Old Dominion used a 19-4 run to seal the victory and improve to 11-3 overall and 2-1 in the CAA.
The 49 points scored by the Monarchs was the team’s fewest this season, but that didn’t bother ODU senior forward Frank Hassell, who led all scorers with 16 points.
“It doesn’t matter if we win by one, [win] 2-0, or 101-100,” Hassell said. “As long as we win it’s fine.”
The Huskies’ poor offensive performance was somewhat unexpected considering the success the team had two days earlier at James Madison University (JMU). Sporting the same lineup that took the floor at ODU, Northeastern showed no ill effects from the absence of Allen in a 75-69 loss to the Dukes.
The offensive star for NU was sophomore forward Dinko Marshavelski, who scored a career-high 23 points on 9-of-17 shooting in his first career start. Also in double-figures was freshman forward Ryan Pierson, who scored 17 points, and Lee, who had 12.
“My teammates did a great job getting me the ball,” Marshavelski said after the contest. “I saw the opportunity to take the shots and I did.”
Marshavelski’s offensive explosion was overshadowed by JMU junior forward Julius Wells, who led all scorers with 28 points. After misfiring on his first two 3-point shots Wells caught fire from beyond the arc and hit nine 3-pointers, going 9-of-11 from long distance, and tying a school record for most 3-pointers in a game. Wells’ hot shooting torched the visitors, who couldn’t find a way to stop him.
“I was kind of hoping Julius Wells would miss a shot tonight,” Coen said after the loss. “Our strategy was to try and pack it in and control the paint and hope they would miss some shots. He played a tremendous game knocking down shot after shot which loosened up our zone.”
Though senior forward Denzel Bowles scored 19 points for JMU, it was Wells who earned the Dukes the win, Coen said. Aside from Wells, JMU shot 3-of-12 from a 3-point distance with many players getting wide-open looks. While his teammates struggled to hit shots without being contested, Wells consistently nailed shots with Huskies defenders in his face.
Northeastern looked to overcome Wells’ performance and found itself trailing 69-68 with 1:34 remaining. The Dukes closed the game on a 6-1 run to improve to 11-3.
The Huskies will look to break their four-game losing streak Saturday afternoon when Hofstra visits Boston for a 12 p.m. tip-off. It will be the first game at Matthews Arena for NU since a 79-67 loss to Rhode Island Dec. 8.
