By Jake Fischer, News Correspondent
HEMPSTEAD, N.Y. – The first place Northeastern Huskies traveled to Long Island shorthanded Wednesday night as the Huskies’ two big men off the bench, junior Dinko Marhavelski and freshman Zach Stahl, stayed back in Boston with lower body injuries. With a smaller roster, head coach Bill Coen went to his bench early and often, constantly rotating smaller players and using more unconventional lineups when the team took on the Hofstra University Pride in a 62-57 win.
The Huskies started the game off relatively successful, jumping out to a 7-3 lead over the Pride before the under-16 media timeout, but the rest of the first half belonged to Hofstra who entered intermission leading the Huskies 24-19.
In the first half, Northeastern struggled shooting the ball offensively. In a comfortable four-game homestand, the Huskies were very successful shooting from beyond the arc and everywhere on the floor. Northeastern struggled to get shots falling as they made only two of their 15 three-point attempts in the opening period. Overall, Northeastern struggled from the field making only 32 percent of their attempts.
“I thought we were very sluggish in the first half,” Coen said. “We were getting open looks but we weren’t really stepping into our jumpers, and playing with the same pop we have throughout the season.”
However, the Huskies came out of the break aggressively despite struggling from the field. Senior captain Jonathan Lee headed the Northeastern attack, driving to the rim at will. Once inside the paint, Lee was able to bring home a few buckets while also dumping the ball off to a few of his teammates as well.
“We knew being the first place team in the conference they might have it out for us,” Lee said following the game. “We just wanted to come out of the half and stay aggressive even if the shots weren’t falling.”
Behind that attacking offensive effort, Northeastern was able to secure a 31-30 lead over their hosts with 15:12 left in the second half. However, the Pride were able to storm out to 13-1 run and secured a solid lead over the Huskies.
But, as basketball is a game of runs, the Huskies would go on a run of their own. After falling down to the Pride 44-38 on two Stephen Nwaukoni free throws, the Huskies proceeded to force multiple Hofstra turnovers that led to multiple fast break points and Joel Smith three pointers. In the process of gaining a six point lead, the Huskies really dug in defensively and looked determined to seal the game.
“The team’s energy level was huge for us in the second half,” Coen explained, “I thought we got a great performance from Marco Banegas-Flores off the bench who forced several turnovers and we played really well as a team overall.”
Behind that great defensive effort, the Huskies were able to hang on to a tough, hard-fought road victory. For Northeastern (15-8, 10-1), the No. 1 seed in the CAA Tournament is starting to come within reach, but they will need to continue to keep their foot on the pedal and go full speed ahead.
Moving forward, the Huskies on Saturday will take on a struggling 2-22 Old Dominion team, which recently fired long-time head coach, Blaine Taylor.
