By Matthew MacCormack, news staff
In the midst of an intense Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) conference schedule, the Northeastern (NU) men’s basketball team stayed at Matthews Arena for two home games this past week.
Once again, the Huskies split their slate of CAA contests. On Wednesday night, NU outlasted a comeback effort by the Towson University Tigers and won 69-62. However, NU could not replicate the success when the University of Delaware rolled in for a Saturday afternoon clash, falling to the Blue Hens 73-68.
The Huskies (16-9) completed the season sweep of Towson (11-15) on Wednesday after edging the Tigers back in January. Sophomore point guard T.J. Williams (16 points, seven assists, five rebounds) hit a 3-pointer to open the scoring, and NU never looked back. The team shot 60 percent from the field in the game. The first half yielded a blistering 72 percent shooting clip, marking a season-high in one half for the Huskies.
“In the first half, we got into a little bit of a rhythm,” Head Coach Bill Coen, now in his ninth season at NU, said. “We shared the ball really well and got good pace and spacing to our offense.”
Redshirt senior forward Scott Eatherton (17 points, four rebounds, three assists) hit two 3-pointers in the first 2:15 of game action, putting the Huskies up 9-2 early on. Coming into the game, Eatherton had made just four shots beyond the arc all season.
The Huskies continued to build a lead in the first half and ended the frame leading 39-26 after senior forward Reggie Spencer hit a layup in the final seconds.
In the beginning of the second stanza, the Huskies continued to cruise. Redshirt junior forward Quincy Ford, who chipped in 11 points and six rebounds, hit a 3-pointer with 16:30 remaining to push the NU lead to 47-30, its largest of the evening.
The Huskies faltered slightly down the stretch, allowing the Tigers to rip off a 6-0 run in the closing minutes to cut the lead to four points. From there, Ford and junior guard David Walker combined to make six straight free throws, closing out the 69-62 victory.
Although NU nearly let the game slip away, Coen wasn’t concerned post-game.
“Towson had been playing really, really good basketball,” he said. “I told the team in the locker room – the object is to win the game and we accomplished that.”
Next up for the Huskies would be the Blue Hens of Delaware (6-18) on Saturday. The contest played out like a game of tug-of-war, with eight lead changes. However, the Huskies didn’t have enough to extend their five-game CAA win streak.
“[Delaware] came in here and played a terrific basketball game. They executed offensively. They got us on the backboards,” Coen said. “They did everything they needed to do to win a competitive CAA game on the road.”
The Blue Hens jumped out to an early 12-4 lead, as Eatherton picked up two fouls in four minutes and was forced to sit for much of the first.
NU then rattled off a 12-2 run of its own, taking a two-point lead with seven minutes left in the half.
NU stayed competitive in the first 20 minutes mainly because of Spencer. The senior forward went 6-6 from the field in the first half, scoring 13 of his 14 points.
“[Spencer] sensed that … we didn’t start with the kind of energy we needed,” Coen said. “I thought he deliberately went in to try to change the rhythm of the game, and he certainly did that.”
Spencer had more points in the opening frame than the rest of his teammates combined, and thus the Huskies went into the locker room trailing 29-25.
Something clicked out of the gates, though, as NU scored the first 10 points of the second half. Williams (18 points, two assists) scored three straight baskets, putting NU up 37-31.
A few minutes later, Delaware scored nine unanswered points, building a 47-40 lead with 10 minutes to play. The Huskies never caught up.
Freshman guard Devon Begley nailed a triple to cut the lead to four points with 4:00 remaining. NU dropped the decision, 73-69. Ford tallied nine points and eight rebounds, and Walker put up 11 points and two assists in the loss.
It was an uncharacteristic effort by the Huskies. NU allowed two young Blue Hen stars, freshman guard Kory Holden (15 points, seven assists) and redshirt sophomore forward Maurice Jeffers (20 points, five rebounds), to dictate play. The Huskies totaled just eight assists, six fewer than their average output. NU also shot 19 percent from three, well off its usual 37 percent clip.
“I thought we started the game extremely slowly … We really didn’t have much pace or efficiency to our offense,” Coen said. “We just played rushed, and not in rhythm for the majority of the game.”
With a tough loss behind them, the Huskies can focus on the final six games of the schedule. NU sits just one game behind the College of William & Mary, which is in first place in the conference. If NU can pass William & Mary, it will be on target for a regular season conference title.
The next pair of games consists of battles with the fourth- and third-ranked teams in the conference, respectively. First, the Huskies travel on Thursday to Hofstra University (16-9). NU won the January matchup, 91-82.
Then, the black and red visit the University of North Carolina at Wilmington (UNCW) on Saturday. UNCW defeated NU at Matthews earlier in the year, 75-68.
Although it is a challenging road ahead, the team isn’t concerned. Coen sees the upcoming games as a chance for the Huskies to prove their dominance.
“If we wanna be in consideration for a regular season title, we gotta beat the [best],” Coen said. “Given the schedule, we have that opportunity.”
Photo by Brian Bae
For more photos from the Delaware game, click here.
