With wins over Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) opponents Georgia State and Hofstra, the men’s basketball team put together its first win streak of the season this past week. The Huskies (5-12, 3-3 CAA) hosted both games and snapped Hofstra’s six-game win streak with an 84-74 upset.
The Pride came into Saturday’s game undefeated in conference play, but a double-double from senior co-captain Bennet Davis helped send Hofstra home with their first CAA loss. Davis put up 27 points and 11 rebounds, earning an NBA comparison from Hofstra head coach Tom Pecora.
“I said to our big guys, ‘Is that Bennet Davis or is that Kevin Garnett out there?'” Pecora said after the loss. “He put a whuppin’ on us.”
Davis’ 27 points tied his career high set at Boston College Dec. 31.
“He’s our go-to guy,” said senior co-captain Bobby Kelly, who scored 15 points and drained three of his four three-pointers.
Freshman guard Matt Janning gave the Huskies a 14-12 lead with a layup just over five minutes into the game, a lead NU maintained for the rest of the contest. At halftime Northeastern led the Pride by 10, 37-27.
Hofstra closed the gap to seven but was unable to get any closer as the Huskies led by as many as 14 in the second half.
Junior forward Mark Washington continued to break out with the best performance of his career, scoring four, but matching his career high with seven rebounds and blocking a personal-best four shots in 20 minutes.
“Where we’re at every win’s a big win,” said head coach Bill Coen. “We just go one by one, and they were the opponent today and that was the only team we had to compete against today. I think it just shows the measure of what we can do when we play team basketball. And if we can keep that consistency and keep that focus, we can be competitive in this league.”
Pecore said his team may have underestimated how the Huskies would perform at home.
“[Northeastern] beat us in every aspect of the game,” he said. “They were tougher than us. I’m very disappointed in our veterans, our leadership and our guards who have been so highly touted. They drank the poison. They thought after the Drexel win [55-53 in overtime Thursday] they were just going to come in here and win. Right from the start [NU] played with greater energy and the team that wanted the game more won, and that’s usually the way it is.”
On Wednesday Georgia State (6-10, 2-4 CAA) visited Matthews Arena and led the Huskies 45-31 at halftime. Northeastern surged back in the second half, however, scoring 53 points to win the game 84-69.
The Huskies opened the second period with a 25-5 run in the first 8:10. The three senior captains led the effort. Kelly racked up a season-high 22 points, Davis added 21 and Adrian Martinez put up 16 points and four assists.
“At halftime coach Coen was really upset with us,” Davis said. “He yelled at us and challenged us to look each other in the eye to see if we were ready to play for one another or if we were going to give up.”
Northeastern hits the road with games at Drexel (12-4, 2-1 CAA) tonight at 7:30 p.m. and George Mason (9-7, 3-3 CAA) Saturday at 4 p.m.
