By Max Nagel, News Correspondent
In his last regular-season home game, senior forward Kashief Edwards scored a career-high 22 points as the Huskies handed Colonial Athletic Association No. 2 George Mason University its third conference loss, 85-82, last night.
The team honored Edwards in a senior night ceremony before the game.
“Having Kashief on the team has been a pleasure,” head coach Bill Coen said. “He gives us a lot and tonight, he played a great game.”
Edwards has been a member of the men’s basketball team for only one season after playing three years at Niagara University.
The first half of the game was even for both teams. Points off turnovers (12), second-chance points (five) and steals (eight) were identical for both teams. The Huskies committed 13 turnovers to Mason’s 12. George Mason led rebounding 17-13.
But it was lackluster play from the Huskies that allowed the Patriots to get a halftime lead of seven points, 38-31.
“I think the reason for our poor first-half shooting wasn’t that we couldn’t make shots, but that George Mason’s defense prevented us from scoring,” Coen said. “They step onto the court ready to play. They have an amazing amount of energy and their defense was effective in stopping us.”
George Mason’s bench put up 18 points to Northeastern’s six. Mason was playing physical defense – eight first half fouls – with an early full court press that constricted Northeastern from putting up points. The Patriots shot 52 percent (13-25) from the field while the Huskies were held to just 42 percent (10-24).
Coming out of the locker room for the second half, the Huskies put together some offense and gained their first lead of the game with an Edwards layup, 54-53, with 9:59 left on the clock.
Northeastern went 22-42 (67 percent) from the field and 5-11 (67 percent) from three-point range in the second half. Twenty-eight rebounds allowed them to bring a win into reach and to a tie at the final buzzer, 75-75. Edwards had the game tying-dunk with 0:29 remaining in the half.
“We were able to play a steady offense and get points slowly,” Coen said. “We started to make rebounds. I believe that rebounds win games. Saturday, we didn’t rebound, tonight we did. We won tonight.”
Junior guard Jonathan Lee led the Huskies in shooting 18-for-20 from the free throw line, scoring a career-high 27 points.
Junior guard Joel Smith had five three-pointers, placing him higher on Northeastern’s all-time three-point scorers list ahead of Lamont Hough (1989-93, 151) with 154 three-pointers, ending the game with 19 points and with eight rebounds.
“I wanted to go out with a bang in my last game,” Edwards said. “The fans helped us out … it was great.”
The five-minute overtime period let Northeastern put up a quick 10 points the Patriots could not match.
The Huskies return to CAA play with their final regular season game Saturday at noon at the University of Delaware. The Blue Hens are 15-12 on the year and 10-6 in CAA conference play.
Northeastern will conclude its season when they travel to Richmond, Va., March 2-5 for the CAA tournament.
“I think those will be great games. If tonight is any implication of how we will play against teams in our conference, I think we can do well,” Coen said. “These games are never easy. Conference play is always close.”
