The men’s basketball team found their footing this weekend after another win at home today against the College of Charleston, 65-51.

Redshirt junior guard Maxime Boursiquot led the game with 18 points, followed by redshirt senior Jordan Roland who had 17 and senior Bolden Brace who had 13 points and 8 rebounds. The Cougars’ highest scorer was Zep Jasper with 10 points and senior guard Grant Riller who only had 9 points and went scoreless in the second half. Until today, Riller, who is averaging 22.1 points a game, had not gone a game without scoring in the double digits. 

“There’s four more games left in the conference, it’s time to show up,” Boursiquot said. 

This game also marks head coach Bill Coen’s 159 CAA wins, second all-time in league history.

The Huskies (13-13, 7-7 CAA) and the Cougars (15-12, 9-6 CAA) played a close game of back and forth in the first half. Whenever NU made an impressive offensive play, Charleston returned the favor. In one offensive play, Boursiquot dunked not once, but twice in a row. 

The half ended tied at 33. 

In the second half, that close game was no more. The Cougars went without scoring for 11 minutes. Using this to their advantage, the Huskies made some of their best plays of the season.

As a Charleston player chased a rolling ball, Boursiquot grabbed it and went for a clear layup. Shortly after, Roland threw a floater using just his left hand with six seconds remaining on the shot clock. When freshman guard Tyson Walker was unable to shoot within the shot clock, Roland went for the rebound and passed to Borusiquot who was waiting in front of the basket for a dunk.

The Cougars woke up with three minutes left on the clock, but their last minute attempts were nothing on the Husky defense. All the Huskies were actively contributing to the defense, allowing the usual defense-first Boursiquot to score big.

“When the other guys defend, it gives me more and more energy to keep defending and keep doing what I do,” Boursiquot said. 

The Huskies travel to second place University of Delaware (19-7, 9-4 CAA) Thursday night followed by a roadtrip to Drexel (13-13, 6-7 CAA) the following Saturday afternoon.