By Matthew MacCormack, news correspondent
While most of Northeastern’s students enjoyed a quiet winter break away from school, the NU men’s basketball team was busy putting together an impressive nine-game stretch that spanned December and January. Over the past nine contests, the Huskies finished with a 6-3 record.
The stretch began with a home win over Western Michigan University on Dec. 6 and concluded with a victory at conference foe Towson University on Jan. 10. In between, Northeastern (11-5) faced a diverse slew of opponents.
Over the past five weeks, the Huskies’ grueling travel schedule took them to California, Virginia, Maryland and Delaware, and pitted them against some famous mid-major opponents. Nonetheless, Head Coach Bill Coen thought his team was up to the challenge.
“It’s always challenging to try to win on the road. But I thought our group kept their concentration and their focus, and we were able to play reasonably well away from home,” Coen said.
When mid-December rolled around, the Huskies participated in the 2014 Cable Car Classic in Santa Clara, Calif. There, they dropped a tight 60-58 decision against California Polytechnic State University before edging Santa Clara University by a score of 78-72. NU stayed on the West Coast for one more game: a battle with the Gaels of Saint Mary’s College, who have reached the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) tournamentthree of the past five seasons. The Huskies fell in a nail-biting 72-68 overtime decision.
The team then made its way back to the East Coast and returned to action with a thrilling 58-57 comeback victory over the University of Richmond Spiders on New Year’s Eve.
As the calendar turned to 2015, the Huskies continued their success. To close out the nine-game period, the Huskies went 3-1 against four Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) opponents in the first two weeks of January. With the early CAA success, the Huskies earned the number two spot in last week’s conference standings.
As the meat of the CAA schedule looms, the Huskies hope to win enough games to position themselves well for the conference tournament in early March. One advantage the black and red have is that after all the traveling in January, NU will play nine of its final 15 conferencegamesat home.
Leading the way for the Huskies the rest of the season will be senior forward Scott Eatherton, who paces the team with an averageof 15.4 points and 7.4 rebounds per game. Juniors guard David Walker (11 points, 3 assists) and forward Quincy Ford (11 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists) should also play vital roles in the remaining half of the year. However, as Coen points out, the beauty of this year’s team is that no one player has to be a superstar every night.
“We’ve gotten great contributions up and down our lineup, from bench players to starters,” Coen said. “One of our areas of focus for improvement is our handling of the basketball. We need to cut down on our turnovers.”
As the Huskies jockey for position in a competitive CAA, Coen believes the team has one attribute that will be incredibly valuable: a sense of unity. If NU is able to win the conference tournament and punch a ticket to the playoffs, the entire team will be a big reason why.
“I think what I’m most impressed with is our team chemistry and our team-first attitude,” says Coen. “We play a very unselfish brand of basketball.”
Photo courtesy Jim Pierce, Northeastern Athletics
