Pain is no more a feeling than it is an experience. Just ask the Northeastern men’s basketball team, which came out of a two-game home stand with zero victories after experiencing heartbreaking defeats at the hands of Boston University and Binghamton University last week.
The Huskies (11-8, 5-3 AE) entered the week undefeated at home, and tied with Boston University (13-4, 7-1 AE) for second place in the America East, however they lost to Binghamton Wednesday and dropped a thriller Saturday afternoon at Matthews Arena to the cross-town rival Terriers, 76-74. In Saturday’s contest, which was played in front of the largest home crowd to see a men’s basketball game since playing Duke in 1995, the lead changed 13 times, while the two teams shared it 11.
“Anytime you play well enough to win and you don’t, its tough,” said NU coach Ron Everhart, “but our guys are mature enough to know that we’ll play them again.”
With the game knotted at 71 apiece and 1:45 remaining in the second half, BU’s Chaz Carr dropped two of his team-high 22 points on a layup to give the Terriers a two-point lead.
D’wan Youmans hit one of two free-throws to bring the Huskies within a point with 54 seconds left in regulation, but BU answered on their next possession with a Shaun Wynn layup that increased their lead to three-points. A Javorie Wilson field goal countered by a BU free-throw brought the game to 76-74 with less than 10 seconds to play. However, Huskies leading scorer Jose Juan Barea, who netted 29 points, was unable to hit a tough jumper in the lane and BU held on for the win.
The game, which was played in front of 2,805 fans, lived up to this year’s extra NU-BU hype, with both teams battling to be America East’s top dog.
“It was a well-played game on both ends,” Everhart said.
Wilson added 14 for the Huskies, but Marcus Barnes, playing in his second game after a two-game suspension, notched only eight points on 2-11 shooting.
“It’s always hard to get back into that mid-season rhythm when you miss a few games,” Everhart said. “As a team we need to get him open more, and that starts on defense.”
While the NU offense is averaging an AE-leading 75.8 points per game, the Huskies are allowing a league-worst 72.7.
“It’s a long America East season,” Everhart added. “All we can try to do is improve and get better.”
Last Wednesday at Solomon Court, the Huskies lost their first home game of the season to the visiting Binghamton Bearcats 80-62. As bad as the score may look, the game wasn’t even that close, as Binghamton (8-11, 4-4 AE) came out on fire, shooting 73.9 percent in the first half.
“They played well and made their shots,” Everhart said. “But we also allowed some open looks for them.”
Barea once again led the Huskies in scoring, but his 18 points weren’t enough to match up to Binghamton’s top-scorer, Nick Billings. Billings, the reining AE Defensive Player of the Year, was just three blocks shy of a triple-double, as he swatted seven shots and pulled down 10 boards to go with his game-high 25 points. Barnes and Wilson added 10 and 13 respectively for the Huskies in the losing effort.
With the Huskies failing to pick up a win at home last week, they now find themselves in another tie in the standings, however this time it’s with Maine for third place. NU has a chance to at least break the tie with Maine and take sole possession of third place Wednesday night when they travel to Orono, Maine to take on the Black Bears at 7 p.m.
Also, in a rematch of their Jan. 4 matchup in which the Huskies won 75-72, NU plays host to New Hampshire on Saturday at 1 p.m. at Solomon Court.
