By Jake Fischer, News Staff

The men’s basketball team fell to the University of Delaware in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) conference tournament on Sunday, 87-74, ending its season one day after the Huskies defeated Drexel University in the tournament’s first round.

Northeastern (11-21, 8-10 CAA) defeated the Dragons on Friday behind a three-headed monster offensive attack from redshirt-junior forward Scott Eatherton, sophomore forward Zach Stahl and sophomore guard David Walker. Eatherton scored 23 points and grabbed 15 rebounds, Walker scored 18 points and Stahl added 19 points and 12 rebounds. Freshman guard T.J. Williams added 12 points and 3 assists off the bench, too.

“The big key for us was really controlling the backboards,” head coach Bill Coen said. “We knew the game was going to be a challenge. Whenever we play and prepare for a [Drexel head coach] Bruiser Flint team, we have to be prepared for the physicality and the battle on the boards.”

After trailing Drexel 13-8 with 13:58 remaining in the first half, the Huskies used a 12-0 run to take a sizeable 20-13 lead over the next seven minutes of game action and never looked back. Northeastern led by as many as 17 points in the second half, cruising to a 90-81 win, the most points it scored all season long.

“Our guys rose to the challenge today and did a nice job,” Coen said. “I thought we started the game a little anxious. Once our players settled in and got their feet on the ground, we played fairly well after that.”

The Huskies found themselves down big in the first half against Delaware and used a momentous run to get back into that game as well. The Blue Hens began the contest on a 10-0 run, holding Northeastern without a point for the first 4:27 of the game, until junior Reggie Spencer scored on a layup. The Huskies battled back to tie the game at 24 with 8:48 remaining in the half, but once again Coen’s club started a game by digging itself into a huge hole.

From there, Northeastern managed to rattle off a 7-2 run to take a 31-26 lead over the next three minutes, but Delaware would storm back to take a 39-37 lead at halftime. The Huskies would never lead again as the Blue Hens outscored the Huskies by 11 points in the second half, leading by as many as 20 points.

 “I thought we played a pretty competitive first half, in the second half we have about a five, six-minute stretch where we gave in to their pace,” Coen said. “They have a lot of players that can put a lot of points on the board when the game goes up and down, and that’s exactly what happened.”

In the loss, Eatherton was still able to score 20 points and grab 8 rebounds, earning him a spot on the CAA All-Tournament team, and Spencer added 18 points and 8 rebounds of his own. Nonetheless, Northeastern returned to Boston without an NCAA Tournament bid for the 23rd-straight year, capping off an interesting season for the Huskies.

After graduating all-conference guards Joel Smith and Jonathan Lee last spring, expectations varied for this transitioning program. Coen still had the likes of Walker, Spencer, Stahl,  junior forward Quincy Ford and junior guard Demetrius Pollard on the roster, but few knew what to predict of Eatherton after the big man sat out the 2012-13 season due to NCAA transfer policy.

Then, Ford went down with a season-ending back injury in December and the Huskies failed to successfully navigate through a challenging non-conference schedule. But overall, this 2013-14 season was largely viewed as a rebuilding year and the basketball program is clearly in position to have tremendous success next winter.

“Our record didn’t reflect the effort that the guys put forward. I thought they were competitive all year long, we just never got over that hump,” Coen said. “We’re hoping to have a good summer. We have the majority of our roster returning and a lot of guys who know how committed we have to be to improve and get better. The difference between winning and losing is very slim.”

The Huskies only graduate one senior in Chris Avenant, who played sparingly this season, and Ford will, by all accounts, be ready to return to the hardwood for the start of next season. In the blink of an eye, Northeastern will become one of the most veteran and tested teams in all of the CAA after bringing one of the youngest and most inexperienced rosters to Baltimore for the tournament this past weekend.