Northeastern men’s basketball (14-12, 6-7 CAA) defeated Campbell University Fighting Camels (14-12, 9-4 CAA), on Feb. 13 67-58, ending the Camels’ seven-game win streak as the Huskies continue their up-and-down season.
In their first matchup of the season, both teams came to the floor with high energy. Despite the Fighting Camels coming in with a far better CAA record and a monthlong winning streak, the Huskies’ persevered for a necessary win. The back-and-forth game ended in victory after junior guard Rashad King dropped 24 points.
“[King has] held that place for us all year long as the number one guy,” said head coach Bill Coen. “We don’t take him out of the game. He defends, he rebounds, he shares the ball, he’s a great execution guy. He’s developed into a great leader that all the guys have tremendous respect for.”
The first points of the game came from a driving layup by the Camel’s sophomore forward Colby Duggan despite Northeastern winning the tip-off.
Six minutes into the game, junior center Collin Metcalf, on the fast break, made an alley-oop dunk for his first basket of the game off of a steal from junior guard LA Pratt, making the score 9-11.
The Camels led the Huskies by seven with four minutes left in the half, their largest lead of the game. Back-to-back buckets by King brought the game within two points. Pratt stole the ball and made a layup on a fast break to tie the game, resulting in a timeout called by Campbell. The Camels came back able to regain possession and finish up the first half on top, 32-29.
After an offensive rebound by forward graduate student Alexander Nwagha, sophomore guard JB Frankel hit a three-point jumper with 16 minutes left in the game to tie it up at 41.
Nwagha had a couple of missed free throws in the second half, yet finished the night with 9 points and 9 rebounds. Nwagha has averaged 3.4 points and 2.8 rebounds a game this season.
Back and forth buckets from both teams came to an end when King made a three-point jumper at seven minutes left in the game.
“For us, it’s clock management. Making sure we get possessions and we had to burn a couple of timeouts because of their pressure,” said Coen. “Ultimately we were able to finish the game with some free throws and some great stops on the defensive end so that’s the way you have to do it.”
Junior guard Harold Woods had back-to-back shots with five minutes left in the game lengthening the lead to 58-50. Camels’ junior guard Cam Gregory tried to fight back, hitting two layups with three minutes to go, but it wasn’t enough to pull them up from the deficit.
The Huskies made key defensive plays to keep the lead late in the game. A steal by Metcalf with a minute left and a blocked layup by Pratt off an opponent turnover were some of the key moments of success.
As the clock ran down and both Pratt and Frankel made free throws, Northeastern came away with the lead in a 67-58 win.
The Huskies face the Stony Brook Seawolves (6-20, 2-11 CAA) next at Matthews Arena Feb. 15 at 3:30pm.
