BOSTON, MA - Despite a 24-7 run to start the second half, Northeastern was defeated 70-67 by Northern Arizona on Saturday afternoon at Solomon Court in non-conference action.
Northeastern got off to a slow start as they trailed by 10, 22-12, just 11 minutes into the game. Northern Arizona's size was too much for NU in the early going as they had a hard time stopping Ryan McDade, who had a game-high 21 points, and Brian McHugh, who scored six of his eight in the first frame of action.
The Lumberjacks stretched their bulge to a game-high 13 points off a jumper from McDade with 1:04 on the first half clock. An Aaron Davis three-pointer with nine seconds to go in the first frame narrowed NAU's lead to 10, 42-32, at intermission.
The Huskies came out of the lockerroom ready to playing following halftime. NU reeled off a 24-7 run to start the second half, with nearly all players getting involved in the offense, as six Huskies scored in the 12:32 run.
Trailing by one, 60-59, with 3:38 to go in the game, NAU's Matthew Gebhart converted an old fashioned three-point play to give the 'Jacks the lead for good, 61-59. The Huskies would get no closer than the two-point bulge and dropped to 0-4 on the season. NAU improved to 3-1 on the year with the victory.
Northeastern's first-year head coach Ron Everhart expressed his thoughts, "We haven't finished down the stretch very well this year. We did enought to shoot ourselves in the foot, but I thought they made some real key plays in the second half.
"They're a good ball club and they made two big shots down the stretch and that pushed them over the hump. That's the difference right now. We're not converting open opportunities and we have a lot of them. It's hard to coach making an eight-foot jumpshot go in. Theirs are and ours aren't."
Northeastern, which did have its share of good looks throughout the game, was outshot 52.2 to 41.3 percent on the afternoon.
Leading the way for NU was Jean Bain who tallied a team-high 12 points, followed closely by Tim West's 11 points and Toby Brittian's 10 points. West showed signs of brilliance for the Huskies as he also grabbed three boards and recorded three steals and just one turnover in nine solid minutes of action.
VISITORS: Northern Arizona 3-1
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
No. N A M E FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
04 Gebhardt, Matthew * 3-5 1-3 6-6 0 3 3 1 13 3 2 0 0 32
14 Lopez, Adam * 2-8 1-6 3-4 0 7 7 2 8 3 5 0 2 35
31 McDade, Ryan * 8-12 0-0 5-8 2 8 10 2 21 0 2 2 0 34
40 McHugh, Brian * 3-7 0-0 2-2 4 1 5 3 8 1 2 1 0 26
45 Yazzie, Kodiak * 4-8 1-3 1-2 0 1 1 1 10 2 4 1 1 33
20 Garnett, Stephen 2-3 0-1 0-0 0 2 2 1 4 0 0 0 0 6
21 Ferguson, Chris 0-1 0-1 2-2 0 0 0 2 2 2 4 0 3 12
22 Rieck, Joel 2-2 0-0 0-0 1 2 3 1 4 3 1 1 0 21
34 Feuerbach, Kyle 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
TEAM ........................................ 1 1 2
TOTALS 24-46 3-14 19-24 8 26 34 13 70 14 20 5 6 200
TOT-FG 1stH: 15-27 55.6% 2ndH: 9-19 47.4% OT: 0-0 00.0% Game: 52.2% Deadbl
3pt-FG 1stH: 1-8 12.5% 2ndH: 2-6 33.3% OT: 0-0 00.0% Game: 21.4% Rebs
FThrow 1stH: 11-15 73.3% 2ndH: 8-9 88.9% OT: 0-0 00.0% Game: 79.2% 4
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HOME TEAM: Northeastern 0-4
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
No. N A M E FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
05 Bain, Jean * 3-11 2-7 4-4 0 2 2 1 12 5 1 0 0 35
12 Davis, Aaron * 2-8 2-6 0-0 1 2 3 1 6 4 0 0 2 32
14 Brittian, Toby * 5-7 0-0 0-0 2 1 3 5 10 2 1 1 2 24
22 Cranford, Ricky * 1-6 1-4 1-2 1 2 3 1 4 1 1 0 0 21
31 Randall, Q * 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 3 0 0 1 0 0 2
03 Nlandu, Lunzaya 3-6 1-1 0-0 2 0 2 3 7 1 0 0 0 17
04 West, Tim 4-7 0-1 3-5 3 0 3 2 11 0 1 0 3 9
20 Walker, Jamaar 1-2 1-1 0-0 0 0 0 0 3 0 1 0 1 15
23 Johnson, Antonio 3-7 0-3 0-0 0 2 2 2 6 2 1 0 1 19
30 Wright, Cornellius 4-9 0-0 0-0 2 3 5 4 8 1 4 0 0 26
TEAM ........................................ 1 3 4
TOTALS 26-63 7-23 8-11 12 15 27 22 67 16 11 1 9 200
TOT-FG 1stH: 12-31 38.7% 2ndH: 14-32 43.8% OT: 0-0 00.0% Game: 41.3% Deadbl
3pt-FG 1stH: 5-11 45.5% 2ndH: 2-12 16.7% OT: 0-0 00.0% Game: 30.4% Rebs
FThrow 1stH: 3-3 100.% 2ndH: 5-8 62.5% OT: 0-0 00.0% Game: 72.7% 2
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OFFICIALS: Joe Mingle, Richard Giallela, Bill Laubenstein
TECHNICAL FOULS:
Northern Arizona - none
Northeastern - the bench(1)
ATTENDANCE: 304
SCORE BY PERIODS: 1st 2nd OT1 OT2 OT3 OT4 TOTAL
Northern Arizona 42 28 70
Northeastern 32 35 67
NU's Toby Brittian fouls out with 00:04 remaining in the game.
