With a 73-50 win over George Mason Saturday, the men’s basketball team finished the regular season on a three-game wining streak and a .500 Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) record.
The Huskies finish the regular season at 12-18, 9-9 CAA, exceeding even their own expectations for the rebuilding season.
“To end [the regular season] this way, on Senior Day, well, it’s just the greatest feeling,” said senior co-captain Bennet Davis.
Davis led Northeastern with 20 points and added five rebounds and four blocks in the game. With four minutes left in the game the forward moved more than 2,000 fans to their feet when he dunked for the last time at Matthews Arena.
Senior co-captains Bobby Kelly and Adrian Martinez also scored in double digits in their last home game. Kelly put up 17 points, four assists and three steals, and Martinez finished the game with 11 points and six rebounds.
“Senior Day is always a bittersweet moment,” said head coach Bill Coen. “As a first-year head coach I couldn’t ask for three better guys to welcome me into my position. They showed tremendous leadership and really answered the call every day in practice and games. They helped out younger guys through some difficult times, particularly our non-conference schedule, and they never lost faith. They never lost confidence in themselves, their teammates or me, and I appreciate that.”
Freshman Matt Janning continued his push for the CAA Rookie of the Year award, with a 15-point performance. He added six rebounds and six assists, earning his third CAA Rookie of the Week honor this season. He leads all CAA rookies in scoring and rebounding.
“We’ve had our moments on offense and defense this season, but I don’t think we’ve been able to put it all together in any one game quite the way we did today,” Coen said. “We showed great intensity at both ends of the floor. This was certainly a complete-game performance.”
Davis put the Huskies up 2-0 with a jumper just 30 seconds into the game and NU never relinquished the lead, taking a 41-20 lead into the locker room at halftime. The Patriots tried to come back in the second half when Martinez was called for an intentional foul, followed by a foul by freshman forward Manny Adako and a Kelly turnover. The Huskies were able to hold off GMU, and kept an 18-point lead. They led by as many as 26 in the second half.
“You could feel the energy we had as a team from the beginning of the game,” Kelly said. “It was great to be out there on the floor, because everybody was doing something positive to get us going. It’s the kind of performance that you can definitely feed off of, especially going into the conference tournament. If we can get a carryover effect from our performance here today, we could be a pretty tough team to beat next weekend.”
With the win the Huskies secured the fifth seed for the CAA Tournament in Richmond, Va. Friday. They will face No. 12 Delaware, which they defeated last Wednesday for their second road win of the season.
Led by Janning’s game-high 18 points, NU topped the Blue Hens 70-61. Delaware is the only team the Huskies swept this season, and since joining the CAA last year. Northeastern is 4-0 against Delaware.
Northeastern and the Blue Hens will tip off at 2:30 p.m. Friday. The winner of that game will face Drexel Saturday at 2:30 p.m. Northeastern lost both games against the Dragons this season, 67-41 Jan. 17 and 68-59 Jan. 27.
