Maybe it was the contrast between the red blood and the red on the Huskies’ jerseys that made the blood streaming down Javorie Wilson’s face look fake; or maybe it was the fact that he didn’t seem to be affected by the gaping wound above his eye. Either way, when the referees made him leave the court and he slammed the ball down in frustration, it was clear that the senior forward had just one concern: beating New Hampshire. That is exactly what he helped the Northeastern men’s basketball team do last Saturday at Solomon Court.
Last week’s 76-69 win over UNH and 82-79 win over Maine were all the Huskies (13-8, 7-3 AE) needed to get back on track, and back in the hunt for March Madness.
A few weeks ago, after scoring 18 points in a tough win over visiting Albany, Wilson said, “If we want to win the conference, we have to win at home.”
Three weeks later, after suffering two heart- breaking home losses, the senior forward took matters into his own hands.
In last Saturday’s win over UNH, Jose Juan Barea once again led the team in scoring with 21 points and nine assists, but Wilson was the true leader on this day. Late in the first half Wilson was sidelined with a gaping wound above his right eye and a red river of blood streaking down his face. He sat out the rest of the half, but came back in the second with a vengeance and finished the day with a double-double (19 points and 11 boards).
“He’s one of those guys that all the younger players look up to,” said coach Ron Everhart. “When he plays like that, it really makes an impression on the whole team.”
Both Wilson and Barea hit four three-pointers, helping the Huskies beat UNH (5-15, 1-9 AE) for the second time this season, giving them the season sweep. Going into the half, the Huskies held just a five-point lead, but at the 16:11 mark of the second half, Everhart called his team over to the bench and gave a game-turning speech to the Dogs.
“It was a motivational talk,” said Everhart. “I tried to get them to realize they need to step up, and after that they seemed to rebound and defend better.”
For the rest of the way, the Huskies maintained the lead and even added a few nice alley-oops and dunks that kept the crowd in the game.
“We aren’t used to facing a team that plays zone all game,” Everhart said. “We use the alley-oops as a way to beat the zone.”
Sylbrin Robinson, the leading rebounder in the AE, also had a double-double in the winning effort, pulling down 10 boards to go along with his 11 points. Bennet Davis was the other Husky to score in double digits, with 10 points on the day. Wednesday’s game against host Maine (12-7, 6-4 AE) wasn’t just for another conference win, it was also for sole possession of third place, as the two teams entered the game tied in the standings.
With the score knotted at 79-79 Barea drove to the hoop and hit the game winning lay-up with 47 seconds remaining. Davis saved the game for NU by blocking a shot on Maine’s next possession and after D’wan Youmans was fouled and hit one of two from the charity stripe, the final score was set at 82-79 and Northeastern was the lone team in third place.
Barea scored a season-high 33 points in the tightly contested match, as well as hitting a career-high seven treys, going 7-14 from long range. One of those seven came as time ran out in the first half and gave the Huskies a 34-33 lead at the break. Marcus Barnes scored 14 for the Dogs, despite struggling with his shot, going just 4-12 from the field and 1-9 from downtown.
“He’s not shooting as well as he did in the beginning of the season,” Everhart said. “but other team’s defenses are really keying on him.”
Youmans added 12 points for NU in 25 minutes of play.With last week’s play yielding two crucial wins, the Huskies enter this week with two more big games, most notably being next Sunday’s home game against first-place and undefeated Vermont. The Catamounts won the last meeting between the two teams by 10 points in an extremely physical game.
“The last time we played, we had trouble stopping [Taylor] Coppenrath,” Everhart said. “Things might have gone differently had there not been so many technical fouls, but either way if we want to beat them we have to stop Coppenrath.”
Coppenrath is the reigning America East player of the year and is not only leading the conference in scoring and field goal percentage, he is also third in the nation in scoring with an average of 24.4 points per game.
The Huskies travel to New York to face Stony Brook Thursday night at 7 p.m. before returning home for Sunday’s 3 p.m. tip-off against Vermont.
