By Emily McCarthy, News Staff
Just two days after falling to the University of Delaware, 80-67, on the Blue Hens’ home court, the Northeastern men’s basketball team soundly defeated Hofstra University Wednesday night at Matthews Arena with a final score of 81-73. Northeastern is now 5-5 in Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) action and 8-16 overall.
“Extremely pleased with our team effort this evening,” Northeastern head coach Bill Coen said after Wednesday’s game. “I thought, you know, coming back after Delaware we talked about it as a team, how we need to play. Certainly the way we shared the ball tonight and moved the ball I thought was the difference in the game.”
Redshirt-junior forward Scott Eatherton notched his NCAA-leading 15th double-double in Wednesday’s win, finishing with 11 points and 11 rebounds. But Eatherton was not the only Husky big man with a big performance against the Pride.
Junior forward Reggie Spencer led the Huskies’ offense with 15 points and 8 rebounds. The captain went a perfect 5-for-5 from the field in the first half and threw down two huge two-handed dunks that fired up the fans in the N Zone.
“Most of [the open looks] just came from running the floor hard,” Spencer said. “One of my coaches told me before the game, ‘just play hard, run hard, and it will just come to you.’ So that’s what I tried to do.”
After nursing a nagging injury the past week and playing limited minutes against Delaware, Spencer began Wednesday’s game on the bench. He said starting the game on the sidelines allowed him to get a good look at the ball movement and at how Hofstra was playing.
“Coming off the bench I was able to bring energy and tell the team what was going on, how everything was going, so I think that helped out,” Spencer said.
The Huskies kicked off the first half with a string of strong drives to the basket. Northeastern jumped out to a 16-10 lead, but Hofstra battled back and closed in on the Huskies’ advantage.
Five straight points from Hofstra freshman guard Jamall Robinson gave the Pride a 22-19 lead, but Spencer scored and drew a foul on the following possession to get Northeastern back into the game.
Spencer hit the free throw to complete the three-point play and tie the game, 22-22. His efforts sparked the Huskies’ offense towards the end of the half. Right before the buzzer sounded to end the first 20 minutes, freshman guard TJ Williams nailed a three-pointer from the corner to give NU a 35-29 lead heading into the locker room.
Coen lauded his team’s aggressive play throughout the game.
“Basketball’s a game of reaction, and you have to play with confidence and you have to you know, read situations and you have to — players have to make plays and generally the more aggressive team comes out on top,” Coen said.
“It’s a fine balance,” he said. “When you’re aggressive you’re gonna have some turnovers, you’re gonna make some plays. Really good players get over that mistake very quickly and they move onto the next play.”
Northeastern began the second half with more dynamic drives in the paint and led, 53-47, halfway through the frame.
The Pride threatened Northeastern’s lead multiple times. With just 7:42 left to play in the game, the Huskies held a slim 60-58 advantage.
Thanks to two deep threes from junior guard Demetrius Pollard and stifling defense from the entire team, the Huskies took a 75-69 lead with just 1:26 to play, forcing the Pride to play the foul game in a feeble attempt at a comeback.
Northeastern hit six free throws to close out the victory.
“We really wanted to come out and be aggressive and play confidently tonight and I thought our guys did that,” Coen said.
The Huskies will look to earn back-to-back wins when they take on the College of William & Mary Saturday at 7 p.m. at Matthews Arena.
