By Max Lederman
They must be butter, ’cause they’re on a roll. Sunday afternoon the Northeastern men’s basketball team won their fourth game in a row, in an exciting overtime thriller against Albany (5-14,1-7 America East). The Huskies showed the Great Danes who the top dogs really are by defeating them 89-80 in their own house.
Jose Juan Barea, who had nine points and four assists, hit a huge three pointer with 20 ticks left on the clock to send this game into OT. The game was tight the whole way, with neither team holding more than a four point lead in the second half.
The Huskies, whose leading rebounder and third leading scorer Sylbrin Robinson (12.5 points, 9.4 rebounds) sat out the game with an injured elbow, were paced by Javorie Wilson and Cornelius Wright. Both matched career highs in scoring with 25 and 24 points, respectively.
“I think it was great for us to be able to win with Sylbrin out,” said NU head coach Ron Everhart of the win. “It shows that these guys are really starting to think alike.”
NU also got 14 points off the bench by Aaron Davis and a career-high 10 points from junior Derrell Keys, who made his first career start.
Albany’s Antoine Johnson, who led the team with 23 points, had a chance to give the Great Danes a two-possession lead with his team up 74-71 with 26 seconds to go, but he missed the first shot of a one and one, and Wilson was there to pull down one of his 10 rebounds of the night.
Wilson quickly dished it to Keys, who found Barea open on the left wing. Barea hit the clutch trey to tie the game up with 20 seconds remaining, and after a failed 12-foot fade away jump shot at the other end, regulation ended, forcing OT.
In overtime, the Huskies dominated the Great Danes, scoring six unanswered points in the first minute of the extra period, while holding Albany to just 1-7 shooting.
“I’m starting to see more effort from these guys, for the whole game,” Everhart said.
This win is NU’s fourth in a row and fifth in their last six, putting them over the .500 mark in the conference for the first time this season with a record of 5-4. Overall, the Huskies have a 12-10 record.
On Friday, the Huskies went looking for revenge when they played host to the Hartford Hawks, who handed NU their third conference loss back on Jan. 11. Javorie Wilson came into the game averaging 14.9 points a game, good for second on the team and fifth in the America East, but didn’t make a shot from the field all day. He would make it up, though; by hitting the one shot that really mattered. After being fouled with .7 seconds left in the game, Wilson sunk his first free throw and then missed the second on purpose, to seal the deal for Northeastern’s 51-50 win.
The win, although important, did come at a cost. The team’s leading rebounder, Sylbrin Robinson, went down with a severe elbow injury with just 26 seconds remaining.
After notching his eighth double-double of the season, with a team high 16 points and 12 boards, the conference’s second leading rebounder was injured while fighting for a loose ball at mid-court.
The injury, although severe, is only supposed to sideline Robinson for two to four weeks, which means he should get a chance to play again this season.
“There were no fractures, which the doctors said was unusual with a dislocation so severe,” Everhart said. “So, we hope to get him back, at least for the conference tournament.”
The bottom line is the Huskies, with or without Robinson, are getting better every game. Last week’s shocking, come from behind win against BU must have been a little bit more than just another conference win for the Northeastern men’s basketball team, because they haven’t lost since.
“I think the win against BU helped the guys,” Everhart said on the way back from Albany. “It’s always good to beat a team that you are not supposed to, but I think right now we are playing good because our chemistry is getting a lot better.”
It seems that now, after they started conference play with three straight losses, the Huskies are finally starting to gel together. The ball movement looks smoother and the shots are going in. In NU’s first three conference losses, they just didn’t seem to be on the same page. They are shooting around the same percentage, but their maturation on the court is apparent.
The Dogs have a huge test coming up when the red-hot Stony Brook Seawolves (10-9, 4-4 America East) come into town Wednesday night riding high on a five-game winning streak.
“We have a really big test against Stony Brook coming up,” Everhart said. The last time these two teams faced off was back on Jan. 22 when the Huskies battled back from a 17-point second half deficit, only to miss a last minute three pointer that would have tied up the game. Stony Brook is the only team that has beaten NU in their past six games.
