By Zolan Kanno-Youngs, News Correspondent
Shooting guard Demetrius Pollard continued a memorable sophomore year on Saturday with a career-high 17 points in the Huskies’ win over the University of North Carolina Wilmington (UNCW), 68-64 at Matthews Arena.
“This league is too good for one or two players to carry a team to victory,” head coach Bill Coen said. “And down in George Mason [Jan. 3], Zach Stahl came off the bench and did a really, really nice job and today Demetrius did an outstanding job.”
“That’s what a basketball team is all about,” he added. “It’s not just about the guys who have experience but also the guys who are ready to step up to the challenge.”
The victory came just three days after Northeastern’s conference-opening win against George Mason University in which sophomore Stahl forced a comeback with 15 second-half points. With consecutive wins against George Mason and UNCW, the Huskies pushed themselves to 7-7 on the season and a 2-0 start to conference play. They would go on to extend the streak to 3-0 the following week at Drexel.
Senior guard Joel Smith led the Huskies in scoring with 23 points and his senior guard and co-captain Jon Lee pitched in 10 points and five assists. Sophomore forward Reggie Spencer led the way in the rebounding category with six, to go along with nine points.
The Huskies were lucky to be up 34-32 going into the half with the UNCW Seahawks, shooting a high 67 percent from the field, including a combined 15 points from senior Keith Rendleman and sixth man Tanner Milson. If not for Pollard matching that energy off Northeastern’s bench and the Huskies’ defense forcing 12 turnovers, the score might have looked different.
“It was fortunate,” Coen said. “We wanted to try several different things to extend the floor a little bit because we knew we had our hands full down in the low post and we thought if we could generate some turnovers before they got it in there, that would be to our advantage.”
The Seahawk keeping the Huskies’ hands full in the low post was Rendleman. The senior came into the game averaging 16 points and 10.5 rebounds per game while shooting 52 percent from the floor.
The Huskies opened the second half well and extended the lead to six points, 56-50 with eight minutes to go. UNCW then hit five straight points, a Rendleman jumper and a three pointer by Milson. With six minutes left in the game, Pollard extended the lead back to the three by following one of few of his missed jump shots with a lay-up.
“[UNCW] decided to go zone a lot and I’m a pretty good shooter and I hit my first one and my teammates were just kept telling me, ‘D keep shooting, keep shooting, it looks good,’ and I just kept shooting,” Pollard said. “And it felt good.”
The Huskies never looked back after that. With the score at 60-57 with four minutes to go, they were able to extend the lead with back-to-back steals, starting with one from Ford, which transitioned to a Smith lay-up. Smith was then able to force a crucial steal from UNCW by poking the ball loose from freshman Chris Dixon and diving to the floor to get possession.
Smith coasted his team to victory after that, hitting all four of his free throws with under a minute left in the game.
“The CAA is very competitive so, especially being a senior, you have to be ready at all times,” Smith said. “We’ve had the Matt Jannings, the Chase Allens to show us the way so we’re very comfortable, especially at Matthews.”
They might be comfortable at Matthews, but the Huskies continued the conference success with a road win in Philadelphia against Drexel University Jan. 8 in overtime. Ford stole the show with a three-pointer to tie it up and force overtime that made the SportsCenter’s Top 10 the No. 1 spot the same night. The 63-58 road win pushed the Huskies to an undefeated 3-0 in conference play.
They’ll stay on the road with a trip to Towson University to take on the Tigers Jan. 12 at noon in an attempt to stay undefeated in the CAA.
