The Northeastern men’s basketball team (6-12, 2-5 CAA) triumphed over the Elon University Phoenix (12-7, 4-2 CAA) 85-78 Jan. 15 to claim its second conference victory. The Huskies then lost to the Monmouth University Hawks (9-10, 3-3 CAA) 81-68 in a Martin Luther King Jr. Day game, Monday, Jan. 19.
The Huskies went into the game against Elon with only nine players due to injuries. This is the second meeting between the two teams after Elon triumphed in the first game 103-91 Dec. 29.
The first two minutes of the game were back and forth, with Elon having a narrow lead at 6-5. The Huskies then went on a blistering 20-0 run consisting of layups from sophomore forward Luca Soroa Schaller, freshman center Petar Pinter and freshman guard Xavier Abreu. Junior guard JB Frankel added a jumper, two 3-pointers and a layup from junior guard William Kermoury on what would turn out to be his career night.
Elon finally broke its six minutes of non-scoring with a 3-pointer from sophomore guard Bryson Cokley, followed by a layup by graduate student forward Chandler Cuthrell, taking the Phoenix into double digits, 25-11, with 11 minutes left to play.
The Phoenix grew in making both defensive and offensive rebounds and using them to their advantage. Over six minutes, Cuthrell and Cokley scored a combined 22 points to tie the game at 38 with two minutes left in the first half. Junior guard Mike Loughnane marked his first field goal of the game with a 3-pointer to give the Huskies back the lead, 41-38, in the closing minutes of the half. The Huskies pinned the Phoenix down defensively to preserve the lead going into the break.
The second half was played at a similar end-to-end pace as the opening minutes of the game. After about four minutes, the Phoenix got the rebound off a missed Kermoury 3-pointer, and Cuthrell finished with a dunk to tie the score at 50-apiece. Kermoury knocked down his sixth of seven 3-pointers of the night to restore Northeastern’s lead. Loughnane stole the ball from the Phoenix’s offense and sent a long pass to Kermory, who scored a driving layup to put the game at 55-52 with just under 15 minutes to go.
Fluid passing by the Phoenix laid the ball off to Cuthrell, who squared away a 3-pointer to give Elon the lead at 65-63 for the first time since the opening 90 seconds of the game.
A 3-pointer by graduate student forward Kacper Klaczek gave Elon a seven-point lead, its biggest of the night. The scoreboard read 72-65 with eight minutes left in the game.
Over the next four minutes, Abreu closed the gap for the Huskies with two 3-pointers and three dunks. He then crowned off his efforts with a 3-pointer off an Elon turnover, retaking the lead 73-72 with six minutes left. Two Cokley free throws gave the Phoenix back a slim lead. But, their overall offense was lacking at this point, not having scored a field goal in over three minutes. Kermoury stole the ball and sent Abreu flying into a dunk on the fast break, reclaiming Northeastern’s lead for less than 30 seconds before the Phoenix retook the lead with a hookshot jumper by Klaczek.
After three Northeastern misses, Abreu gave the Huskies the lead for the final time with another dunk at 77-76 and two and a half minutes to go. After this, Northeastern went on a 8-2 run of five free throws and a Kermoury 3-pointer to cap off his career-high 31-point game.
“[Kermoury’s] on an incredible heater, whatever he’s eating, I want him to keep eating it,” said head coach Bill Coen.
The game finished with a hard-fought 85-78 victory for the Huskies.
Abreu finished the game with 22 points —18 of those in the second half. Coen said of Abreu, “He’s not scared of the moment … for a freshman to play at his level is really impressive.”
On the game overall, Coen said that he “couldn’t be prouder.”
The team started out the game against Monmouth in a similar fashion to the game against Elon, with a 12-2 run in the first five minutes of the opening half. Loughnane scored two 3-pointers, and a physical game saw Soroa Schaller to the line, where he scored four free throws.
Monmouth fought back against Northeastern, closing the gap and eventually taking a one point lead with a layup by redshirt junior guard Andrew Ball, 21-21.
An 11-0 run over four minutes put the Huskies 10 points ahead at 32-22. The Huskies and the Hawks went back and forth in the last few minutes to end the half at 38-30 in the Huskies’ favor.
The second half started out with the Huskies maintaining the status quo, but a pair of 3-pointers from sophomore guard Justin Ray put Monmouth in touching distance. A third 3-pointer in two minutes gave the Hawks a two-point lead after just four minutes of play. But Kermoury leveled the game at 43 points.
Over the next five minutes of play, the Huskies were able to keep the gap within five points, but the Hawks were unrelenting as they scored 12 points over four minutes while the Huskies remained pointless. With only six minutes in the game left, the Hawks had built a 17-point lead at 70-53.
The Huskies closed out the game with a 10-4 run but came up short, and the game ended 81-68. Loughnane led the Huskies in points with 15, rebounds with seven and assists with two.
The Huskies will face the Stony Brook Seawolves (11-9, 3-4 CAA) on Thursday, Jan. 22 at 7 p.m. at the Cabot Center.
