By Andrew Parente
WORCESTER – The men’s basketball team struggled offensively against Holy Cross Saturday, which led to a disappointing 61-47 loss at the Hart Center.
The game was played as a part of the O’Reilly ESPNU BracketBuster series.
Northeastern remains 8-8 in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA), but falls to 12-15 overall. Holy Cross improves to 15-11 and is 5-7 in the Patriot League.
The Crusaders were fueled by their leading scorer, senior Tim Clifford, who plagued the Husky defense throughout the game en route to 26 points.
“He’s just a big kid who is having a great senior year,” said Northeastern head coach Bill Coen. “He’s in the last few games of his career and is just in a really good comfort level and really in the zone.”
Leading the way for Northeastern was junior Eugene Spates, with 12 points. Sophomore Matt Janning was also in double-digits with 11. Janning has recorded double-digit scoring in 15 straight games, the longest active streak in the CAA.
Both teams struggled shooting in the opening minutes until Holy Cross picked up its offense toward the end of the half and took an 11-point lead after the first 20 minutes.
But Northeastern kept up with the Crusader offense, staying within five points for the better part of the first half. However, Clifford scored eight of the last 10 points in the half to give his team that advantage.
The shooting struggles continued for the Huskies at the start of the second half, but a 6-0 run seven minutes in appeared to spark the young team.
Just after converting a pair of free throws, sophomore Baptiste Bataille stole the ball in the backcourt and rushed up the floor to find Spates for the two-handed flush.
On the next play, Janning came up with a steal and went coast-to-coast for the lay-up to make the score 36-29 in favor of Holy Cross.
The Crusaders opened up a double-digit lead shortly after, but the Huskies battled back and the teams exchanged baskets for a short period before Northeastern was able to go on another run that brought the team within six.
More free throws and shots by Spates from the floor, plus a big three from freshman Vinny Lima, got the Huskies within four with just less than five minutes to play.
However, Clifford and the Crusader offense proved to be too much for the Huskies as they went on a 7-0 run during the next two minutes to put the game away.
“We struggled against their defense to take quality shots and as a result we never got into a flow offensively,” Coen said. “We had a little flurry in the second half, but I thought the entire game they did a good job of not giving Janning any quality shots and the rest of the guys anything from their sweet spots.”
The Huskies shot a season-low 29 percent from the floor in the game. The 47 points was the lowest point total for Northeastern this season.
Northeastern will now resume CAA play when it travels to Old Dominion to take on the Monarchs Wednesday night. Last time out, the Huskies recorded the win over ODU at Matthews Arena, 67-60. Janning had a team high 20 points in the game.
The Huskies will return home Saturday when they conclude the regular season against George Mason at 2 p.m. Prior to that game, Northeastern will honor its lone senior Mark Washington on Senior Day.
With two tough games remaining in the regular season, Coen knows his team will have to be focused to have a chance to win its next games.
“It just doesn’t get any easier. We have two quality opponents coming up,” Coen said. “One we play on the road and one at home and we’re hoping that we can get back on our winning ways and move up the standings in the CAA.”
