By Dan McLoone, News Staff
That was a rough week.
Yes, the weather has been brutal, but that’s not what I’m talking about. I’m talking about the two major Northeastern sports teams, who have spent their winter weathering a storm of tough losses and heartbreaking endings. For the men’s basketball team, there were high hopes at the beginning of the year. But now, the team is struggling to stay afloat in Colonial Athletic Association conference play. For the men’s ice hockey team, a strong start has slowly come back down to earth.
In the middle of this cold winter, both teams have hit their lowest points of the season. Although there have been some encouraging individual efforts from several players, the team performances have not been up to par to preseason expectations and both teams have suffered some setbacks.
The basketball team hit its lowest point last week. Following a blowout loss at home to The College of William & Mary, the Huskies fell even further in a double digit loss to CAA bottom feeder UNCW in which they scored just six points over the game’s final nine minutes and 30 seconds.
The week did had some positives, however. The Northeastern bench proved to William and Mary that it could score when senior guard Chris Avenant put up 10 points in just 12 minutes. Against UNCW, junior forward Scott Eatherton extended his NCAA leading tally of double-doubles and sophomore guard David Walker rediscovered his shooting touch with 18 points. This was an improvement from going scoreless on 0-7 shooting against William and Mary.
But the only statistic that matters for this Husky team is their record. After the two embarrassing losses, Northeastern dropped to 5-7 in CAA play, including 1-4 in their past five matchups. With only three games remaining until the postseason, catching up to the top teams in the conference is not possible.
The hockey team’s season has been a largely different story this year. After being the biggest early-season surprise in all of college hockey, ranking top 15 in the nation according to the USCHO.com poll, the Huskies found themselves 20 minutes away from ending a 26-year Beanpot title drought.
Failing to beat Boston College in their third matchup was hard enough, especially given how well the team played as a unit. Even so, it only magnified the ground that the team has been losing in Hockey East. Just three days before the Beanpot final, Northeastern lost 3-0 to Hockey East cellar dweller University of Massachusetts Amherst. After that loss, Northeastern fell all the way from second to fifth place in the conference.
The cold is ending, just in time for the new and welcome warmth of spring to appear. Along with that is a new start for both teams. Their rough weeks may have left them demoralized, but they have an opportunity to finish their regular season strong and enter their tournaments on a hot streak.
Eatherton led the way for the basketball team on Saturday with 22 points and 10 rebounds in a defensive battle against College of Charleston, avenging their loss from earlier in the season. With games against Towson University, William and Mary and Drexel University still left, the Huskies can test how they will measure up against three of the top four teams in the CAA. If results fall their way, the Huskies could even find themselves as high as third in the standings at the end of the regular season.
Redshirt junior goalie Clay Witt got the hockey team back on track with his 32 saves in the Northeastern 5-4 win over UMass on Saturday. The team has four games remaining, two at home against third place University of Maine and two against the underwhelming Boston University Terriers. Sitting at fifth place now, the Huskies would love to sweep the rest of their games and secure a rare home game in the Hockey East quarterfinals.
Northeastern now knows what it has to do. Both teams have an opportunity to finish strong, putting themselves in better positions for their conference tournaments. And who knows. Those tournaments may prove to be a whole new season for the Huskies.
