By Max Lederman
CHESTNUT HILL – “I come to you now at the turn of the tide. The battle for middle Earth is about to begin.” – Lord of the Rings
Well, it may not be middle Earth but the battle for the America East conference begins January 7 for the Northeastern men’s basketball team, and now would be an excellent time to hop on the bandwagon.
Sunday’s 72-67 upset over Beantown rival Boston College is nothing less than huge. This momentous road win is Northeastern’s first victory over the Eagles since the 1963-64 season. The Huskies (7-6), who were without injured starters Aaron Davis and Cornellius Wright, had dropped 21 straight games to the Eagles (6-5).
“We obviously feel good about the win. When you talk about coming into a Big East arena like we did and playing against a team like an Al Skinner team, it’s obviously a great win for us. Our guys have really been battling and we feel like we were kind of due for one,” said NU head coach Ron Everhart. “We kind of let one get away in New Mexico, we let one get away from us at Penn State and down at Providence the other night we let the wheels fall off late in the game.”
Sylbrin Robinson led the way with 21 points, while freshman point guard Jose Juan Barea added 19, including a key driving lay-up with 11 seconds left to give NU a decisive 71-67 edge. Barea’s 19 points might as well have been 50 due to the fact that he was matched up with BC senior Troy Bell, one of the best point guards in the nation.
“I didn’t know too much about Troy, only what my brother told me,” Barea said. “I just tried to play defense first, and then worry about the offense.”
Although the Huskies never trailed in the second half, the game was close the whole way. BC came within two points, six times in the second half, but the Huskies had an answer for every BC run. In the waning minutes of the game they hit all of the clutch shots they needed to pull the upset.
Adam Drain had a great game for the Huskies, scoring 11 points off the bench, including two key second-half three-pointers. At the end of the first half the Eagles went on a 5-2 run to pull within four of the Huskies, but Northeastern never relinquished the lead.
NU started off the game with a boing, not a bang, when Robinson stole the ball on the Eagles first possession and tried to dunk so hard that the ball bounced off the back of the rim.
“I just tried to dunk it too hard I guess and it bounced off the back of the rim,” Robinson said.
He would miss only once again in the half and despite the embarrassment, Robinson went on to have the best game of his career at Northeastern, not only leading the team in scoring, but also in rebounds with eight.
“My guards played great, Jose and Jamaar would drive and then dish it, all I could do was try and give them an assist,” Robinson said.
The win was not solely due to Barea and Robinson though, each player that stepped on the court contributed and although he may have had only one point, senior guard Jamaar Walker dished out five assists and plucked three steals.
“We made some tough shots. We made some timely free throws and quite frankly got a couple of pretty good bounces there on some missed shots where we got some run outs and some easy baskets. Of course when you’re on the road against a school like BC, you kind of need some of these things to happen like that,” Everhart said. “I don’t think there was ever a moment when I didn’t feel like we could win this basketball game. But, also I’m the kind of guy that feels we should be winning every basketball game.”
This win gives the Huskies a big boost just a few days before they begin conference play, and is a telling sign that this program is on the rise.
The Huskies travel to Vermont on Wednesday for their first America East game of the season. NU’s first America East home game is on Wednesday the 15th of January at 7p.m.
