By: Patrick McHugh, News Staff
Though his Huskies got the win, men’s basketball coach Bill Coen felt his team’s victory over Towson last night took a Houdini-like effort.
“I think probably the best way I can put it is we escaped tonight,” Coen said. “We certainly didn’t play our best basketball but we did enough good things down the stretch to give us the victory.”
Facing a Tigers squad that was 4-19 overall and 0-13 in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA), Northeastern got all it could handle from the gritty Towson team. Despite trailing by six points at half time, the Huskies regrouped and squeaked by with an 82-78 decision in front of 1,201 fans at Matthews Arena.
The win pushes NU to 9-16 overall and 5-9 in league play. The squad has won five of its last six contests, all in conference games.
Struggling to contain the Tigers’ hot three-point shooting (55.6 percent in the first half), the stunned Huskies found themselves on the wrong end of a 40-34 score at the break. NU could not find its shooting stroke, going only 2-of-11 from long distance in the opening 20 minutes of play.
Regrouping at the intermission, the Huskies emerged from the locker room determined to attack more on offense. Led by senior captain and guard Chaisson Allen’s 21 points, Northeastern erased its six-point deficit and built an eight-point lead before hanging on down the stretch.
“I felt myself and my teammates settled for some jumpers in the first half,” Allen said. “We didn’t get to the rack or get to the foul line. I just wanted to come out more aggressive. I knew if I was able to be aggressive I could get my teammates more involved, and that’s what gave us the win.”
Allen joined freshman forward Ryan Pierson (17 points), and sophomore guards Jon Lee (16 points) and Joel Smith (13 points) in double-digits.
Tigers forward Isaiah Philmore led all scorers with 25 points, while teammates RaShawn Polk and Brian Morris scored 18 points and 15 points respectively.
Coen said the increased comfort level of his younger players has contributed to the team’s improved offensive play.
“A lot of the sophomores didn’t play all that much last year,” Coen said. “They’re now coming in with some experience, 20-plus games into the year playing 30-odd minutes. Now you’re getting out there and getting more comfortable. You know how you can score and how the offense is going to work for you.”
The Huskies nearly made it five wins in a row Saturday when they battled the Hofstra Pride in Hempstead, N.Y. Despite leading by 14 points with 9:26 remaining, Northeastern could not hold on and lost 78-75.
The three-point decision gave the Pride the season sweep of NU after dropping the Huskies 76-67 Jan. 8 at Matthews Arena.
All five Huskies starters reached double-digits in scoring, led by Allen, who had a game-high 21 points.
The first half was back and forth and featured eight lead changes before NU took a 37-36 lead into half time.
The second half proved to be a game of runs as the visitors used a 13-2 run to jump out to a 57-44 advantage with 12:58 remaining. A three-pointer from Lee 3:32 later gave Northeastern its largest lead of the game at 66-52.
Hofstra responded with an 11-0 run to cut the deficit to three with 7:01 to go. Two free throws from Allen made it 75-68 Huskies with only 3:52 remaining, but they would prove to be the final points scored for the visitors the remainder of the contest. The Pride collected the final 10 points of the game to seal the victory.
“We kept the door open maybe a little bit too long,” Coen said. “I thought we took a couple of quick shots when we had control of the game. Whenever you’re on the road you have to make your free throws, and we missed a couple of key free throws that kept the door open.”
The team treks to Atlanta to face Georgia State Saturday. This will be the second meeting between the Huskies and Panthers this season, the first being a 70-65 victory for Northeastern at Matthews Arena Jan. 29. Tip-off inside the GSU Sports Arena is scheduled for noon.
