By Andrew Parente
Sophomore forward Manny Adako turned in another great performance and the defense held off a few last second shots, helping the men’s basketball team capture its first conference win Saturday at Matthews Arena, 64-62.
The win improves the Huskies to 5-8 overall, 1-2 in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA), while the loss dropped Georgia State to 4-9, 1-2 in the CAA. Adako scored a team high 18 points, including six of the final eight points of the game, to help secure the Huskies’ win.
“I thought this was an extremely competitive game,” said head coach Bill Coen. “Both teams played extremely hard and didn’t back down.”
The Panthers controlled the ball for the last shot with 14.3 seconds to play, but the Huskies’ defense held strong, forcing junior guard Leonard Mendez to take two contested shots that failed to go in.
“When games are that highly contested, it usually comes down to a last second play,” Coen said. “Fortunately, we were able to get just enough pressure on the shot, causing Mendez to miss.”
The majority of the first half was back and forth until Georgia State used a 14-4 run to give them a 10 point lead with just more than a minute to play.
A lay-up from Husky center Nkem Ojougboh cut the lead to eight points and the teams went into the locker room with the Panthers holding a 33-25 lead.
Northeastern struggled in the first half from three-point range as they made just one of 10 shots. Georgia State found a little more success, shooting five of nine from behind the arc.
Sophomore guard Matt Janning, along with Ojougboh, found themselves in some foul trouble in the first half, as both players collected two.
The Huskies came out in the second half with improved shooting, and was able to cut into the lead before eventually tying the score. A jump shot from Janning with 14 minutes to go locked the teams up at 40. The teams then began trading baskets before emotions started to boil with just more than 12 minutes to play. A scrum broke out in front of the scorer’s table resulting in two technical fouls for each team.
“I really only caught the tail end of what happened,” Janning said. “I was just trying to make sure that nobody else got in it from our team.”
From that point on, the teams continued to trade baskets before Northeastern was able to take the lead for the final time with 2:39 left to play.
Adako converted a jump shot and a lay-up on two straight possessions to give the Huskies a four point lead. Both shots were assisted by freshman Chase Allen, who continues to impress in his young career.
Ojougboh and Janning both scored in the double digits, tallying 14 and 12 points respectively.
The Huskies improved on their shooting in the second half, going 12 of 19 from the floor, totaling 63.2 percent for the half and 48.9 percent for the game.
Northeastern defended Georgia State from the three point range in the second half, holding them to just two of seven.
“In the second half, we just decided to pick up our aggression,” Coen said. “We picked up the full court pressure and tried to get them out of the comfortable rhythm that they had been in.”
The Huskies will return to action Wednesday when they battle CAA-foe Drexel at Matthews Arena at 7 p.m.
