In the four weeks since the last issue of The News, the Northeastern men’s basketball team played nine games, with two being against nationally recognized programs and four against America East rivals. In that stretch the Huskies lost just three times, two of which came against the likes of No. 15 Florida and Villanova and the other against preseason conference favorite Vermont.
Overall, the Huskies are 9-6, 3-1 in America East play.
While starting center Cornellius Wright sat out Sunday’s game with a knee injury, freshman forward Bennet Davis had a career game against Albany (3-10, 1-3 AE), scoring a career high 16 points and pulling down three boards in the Huskies’ 77-70 win. Davis, who averages 18.7 minutes per game, was a force in his first start as a Husky, shooting a nearly perfect 7-8 from the floor.
“With Cornellius being out, it’s going to give Bennet more of a chance to play,” said Northeastern coach Ron Everhart. “I think he showed that he really wants to take advantage of that.”
Sophomore point guard Jose Juan Barea led the Huskies with 20 points while Javorie Wilson added 18 in the winning effort. In a fast-paced game, NU came up with big shots just when they needed them.
With 3:55 left in the second half and the Huskies down by three, Barea hit a huge three-pointer while being fouled hard and converted at the free throw line to give the Huskies the one point edge. On their next possession Wilson hit his only three of the game, he was 1-7 from the land afar, and the Huskies never looked back.
Marcus Barnes, NU’s top scorer and the second highest scorer in conference, was held to just eight points on 2-10 shooting but dished out four assists to help his squad.
After beating Stony Brook (5-8, 2-2 AE), 82-63, and New Hampshire (4-10, 0-4 AE), 75-72, the Huskies looked to stay undefeated in conference play last Wednesday in Vermont against the preseason America East favorite Catamounts, but were unable to stop 2002-2003 AE player of the year Taylor Coppenrath who dropped a career high 41 points on the Dogs to help Vermont win 88-78.
The loss was the Huskies first conference defeat and came despite Barnes scoring a career high 33 points, including a Northeastern single game record with eight three pointers. The score was 64-61 in favor of UVM (7-5, 4-0 AE) with less than eight minutes to play when emotions boiled over after a hard foul by Barnes.
While the Catamounts bench looked for a flagrant on Barnes, Barea and Vermont’s T.J. Sorrentine got in a tussle, but Barea was the only player whistled for a technical foul in addition to NU senior Javorie Wilson.
When the smoke cleared, the Huskies found themselves down 70-61 and fuming because the refs had turned a three-point deficit into a nine-point difference that the Dogs couldn’t overcome.
“In that situation we were treated very unfairly, our players were treated unfairly and it just wasn’t right,” Everhart said.
NU is currently in third pace behind BU and UVM, but boasts the conference’s highest scoring offense. Although they are ranked last in the league in points given up, they have turned in some impressive performances, including a 101-84 loss to the 10th ranked Florida Gators on December 22 in Gainesville, Florida.
In his first game since being sidelined with a serious knee injury, Barea scored 17 points and dished out a game-high eight assists in the loss. Barnes led the team in scoring with 20 points, including 5-of-8 from downtown.
Although the Huskies gave the Gators more trouble than they expected, Florida junior David Lee was unstoppable, shooting an amazing 12-for-12 for 24 points while also pulling down 10 boards.
Since returning from his knee injury, Barea has averaged 18.3 points per game and six assists. Combine that with Barnes’ 19.8 points per game and you have what Albany coach Will Brown calls a “Big East backcourt.” Brown also went on to say that talent wise the Huskies are “without question the best team in the conference.”
The Huskies are back in action on Wednesday when they host AE rival Hartford. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m.
