By Max Lederman
Instead of the Northeastern men’s basketball team folding under the pressure of playing the America East’s second place team without their star point guard and leading scorer Jose Juan Barea, they handed the Vermont Catamounts a 76-59 thrashing.
Senior guard Jamaar Walker scored 12 points and had a career-high 13 assists without a turnover to lead Northeastern to the blow out victory over Vermont (15-10, 8-4 AE). Walker, whose 13 dimes ties for the third-highest game total in Northeastern’s history, filled in for the regular starter Barea, who sat out for the second strait game due to NCAA eligibility rules.
“With Jose out, a lot of the guys who don’t get as much playing time really had a chance to take advantage of the opportunity to play,” said NU coach Ron Everhart.
Sophomore Aaron Davis and Junior Cornellius Wright were on the receiving end of most of Walker’s dishes. Davis scored a team high 18 points and Wright added 16 points in the Huskies 7th conference win of the season. The Dogs are 14-12 overall and 7-6 in conference play.
Vermont’s Taylor Coppenrath, the league’s leading scorer at 21.9 points per game, was held to 15 points while shooting a dismal 5-15 from the field.
One of the many bright spots for Northeastern was the return of the team’s leading rebounder, Sylbrin Robinson, who sat out the past four games with a dislocated elbow. Robinson scored eight points, pulled down five boards and blocked four shots in 33 minutes of action.
“I know that all of the guys think the whole Jose situation is unfair,” Everhart said. “That coupled with the return of Sylbrin was a huge emotional lift for us.”
Maybe it was the “Beat Vermont” T-shirts that the fans were wearing, or maybe the Huskies were just looking for vengeance after their 89-81 loss to the Catamounts on Jan. 8. Whatever it was, it worked.
The game was never close, as the Huskies lead by at least 10 points throughout the entire game and at one point leading by as many as 30.
The Huskies’ crisp ball movement and tight defense were the main factors in this game, with the Catamounts committing 16 turnovers compared to Northeastern’s nine.
To put it simply, the Dogs were gellin’ like fellons. Each Husky starter had at least eight points, with three of the starters scoring in double figures.
Not only does the win put the Huskies back into third place in the conference, but it also shows them that they can win without Barea on the court; that was the sticking point.
The first game Barea sat out the Huskies got trampled on by Maine 75-55, and things did not look good. Despite Javorie Wilson’s career-high 30 points, the Dogs got mauled by the Black Bears (12-12, 7-5 AE) Wednesday night, and looked more like the team that started conference play 0-3 rather than the team that had won six out of their last eight.
NU shot a horrific 36.5 percent from the field compared to Maine’s 65.7percent, and were outrebounded 28-14 on the defensive glass. The game was still within reach during parts of the first half due to Wilson’s game-high performance, but the rest of the Huskies were colder than the five-day forecast for Boston, shooting 11-43 from the field. Maine held NU scoreless for a stretch of 7:25 at the end of the first half and went into the break with a 41-22 lead.
“That was definitely the turning point of the game,” Everhart said. “They just exploded on us. Anytime you give up 15 straight points you put yourself in a pretty significant hole.”
The Huskies came no closer than within 17 points of the Black Bears in the second half. The absence of Barea wasn’t even the biggest problem for the Huskies in this loss; the lack of a big man to try and slow down Maine’s Justin Rowe was the real issue.
Rowe had a team high 18 points to go with his eight rebounds and six blocks. The Huskies were out scored 38-14 in the paint and didn’t have a single block all game.
The Bottom Line: Barea will sit out Sunday’s game against Binghamton but is scheduled to return to the line up February 26th when NU hosts Albany.
With the return of Robinson and the momentum from Saturday’s win over Vermont, the Dogs are looking pretty good traveling to Binghamton. In the last meeting between the Bearcats and the Huskies Robinson only had four points, compared to Barea’s team-high 19, but was a dominant presence in the paint, where he pulled down eight rebounds and rejected five shots.
The Huskies have just three games left before the conference tournament begins and their last game is against first place Boston University.
“We have faced a lot adversity this season, and I think we all know that whenever we get all of our guys healthy and out on the court, we are going to be a pretty tough team to beat,” said Everhart.
With Barea and Robinson together on the court again, look for NU to make a run at the conference title.
