Northeastern men’s basketball (11-10, 3-5 CAA) was defeated by the Towson Tigers (12-9, 7-1 CAA) at Matthews Arena 75-65 Jan. 27. It was the second meeting between the Huskies and the Tigers this season, with Towson taking the first contest 80-73 Jan. 9.
“They have a lot of experience on the bench. [Towson] brought their A game today,” said Northeastern head coach Bill Coen.
The Tigers got rolling early, sophomore guard Tyler Tejada sinking a three-pointer one minute into the game. The Huskies quickly struck back when junior guard Rashad King’s pass off of his defensive rebound found fellow junior guard Harold Woods for an easy layup.
Junior guard LA Pratt was the bright spot for the Huskies in the first half, logging 12 points. His three-pointer in the fourth minute brought the Huskies within two points of Towson. Thirty seconds later, his driving layup gave Northeastern its only level score of the game at 9-9.
The Huskies struggled to get their point-scorers going in the early minutes of the game. Sophomore guard JB Frankel had 19 points against Drexel on Jan. 23, his career high, yet his first points did not come until a three-pointer at 12 minutes against the Tigers. King, Northeastern’s leading scorer this season, was double-teamed, causing him to fail to score in the first half.
“Anytime [King] had the ball in a threatening position, he had a second defender at him, so he couldn’t really get a rhythm,” Coen said.
Northeastern ended the first half down 49-21 with 10 turnovers and a 41.9% scoring percentage.
“I thought the game got away from us towards the end of the first half. I thought we allowed them to get comfortable,” Coen said.
Despite the lack of energy the Huskies had in the first half, they came out with fire in the second.
Northeastern allowed Tejada to score a two-pointer in the opening minute of the half, but those would be the only points they scored for five minutes.
The Huskies went on a 9-0 run with six rebounds and junior center Collin Metcalf’s 45th block of the season to bring the team within five points of the Tigers.
It was after Towson’s fourth one-minute time-out that the game slipped away from Northeastern.
The Huskies failed to score a field goal for four minutes, with four points coming off free throws from graduate student forward Alexander Nwagha and King.
Woods’ 11th-minute three-pointer made the score 55-49 and created the smallest deficit Northeastern faced for the remainder of the game.
A media timeout in the 17th minute seemed to be what the Huskies needed to give themselves a shot. Four successful free throws from Pratt and Frankel, four turnovers and two field goals brought Northeastern within eight with one minute to go.
Ultimately, Northeastern was unable to overcome the gap, giving up four points off free throws and notching two more points. The Tigers extended their win streak to six games, with redshirt sophomore guard Dylan Williamson logging a team high 21 points in their 75-65 win.
King ended the game with only seven points despite averaging 17.1 points per game all season. Pratt came away with 22 points, the highest for both teams.
“We’ve got to get better one game at a time. There’s still a lot of time left on the schedule in terms of games to prepare. We’ve got to focus on getting better tomorrow,” said Coen.
The Huskies will look to bounce back on the road against the Hampton University Pirates (10-11, 3-6 CAA) Jan. 30.
