Six-seed Northeastern lost to two-seed Delaware 110-66 in the semifinals of the 2001 America East Championship at the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark, Del. on Sunday afternoon. Delaware advances to meet top seed Hofstra in the America East title game on Saturday, March 10 in Hempstead, N.Y. Hofstra, the defending conference champions, came from behind to defeat Maine in the first semifinal 78-66.
Billy Wells (6-10 FG, 3-4 3PT-FG) led the hot-shooting Blue Hens with 23 points and Ryan Iversen added 20 off the bench. Delaware made 60.7 percent of its field goal tries for the game, 69.0 percent in the second half when the Hens outscored NU 64-36. Ricky Cranford led NU (10-19) with 20 points, while freshman Jean Francois added 13 and Tyrone Hammick 12. The Hens did a nice job containing NU's senior guard Marcus Blossom, holding him to six points on 2-7 shooting.
The Blue Hens (20-9) hit seven of their first 11 three-point tries and built a 16-point halftime lead. In the second half, Delware started by going inside to center Ajmal Basit, who scored six of his team's first eight points to start a 21-5 run that blew the game open. Mike Ames made a three-pointer to put the Hens up 32, 67-35, with 13:15 left. The Huskies got no closer than 31 the rest of the way. Delaware's final 44-point bulge was its largest of the afternoon and set a record for widest margin of victory in an America East playoff game.
"I thought Delaware played great offensively," NU Coach Rudy Keeling said. "We couldn't get in a rhythm and they didn't miss a shot. They played about as well as they could play. We never got to run, we never got any easy baskets, and we never really got in sync. I thought we were always a half a step slow."
Delaware won the opening tip and Wells hit a three-pointer for a 3-0 lead just 29 seconds into the game. The Blue Hens did not trail all afternoon. Delaware led 20-17 midway through the first half and extended the edge to 10, 29-19, with a 9-2 spurt. Wells, Greg Miller and Iversen fueled the surge, each hitting three-pointers.
The Blue Hens continued the run and built a 15-point edge, 38-23, with 5:03 left. In all, Delaware outscored the Huskies 18-6 over a span of 5:02. The Blue Hens had their largest advantage of the first half, 46-28, before Cranford sank the last basket before intermission. Delaware led 46-30 at the break.
The Huskies advanced to the semifinals for the first time since 1995 when Blossom sank a 12-foot jumper with just 3.6 seconds left for a 74-74 win over three-seed Drexel on Saturday night. The 110 points allowed by NU were the most for a Husky opponent since Loyola Marymount posted 123 on Nov. 24, 1990.
The game marked the end of the careers of four seniors -- Hammick, Blossom, Dwayne Barnes and George Aygar. Blossom ended his career with 1475 points, seventh-best in NU history.
VISITORS: Northeastern 10-19
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
22 Cranford, Charles f 5-12 1-3 9-10 2 3 5 2 20 1 2 0 1 30
34 Hammick, Tyrone f 3-9 0-0 6-6 3 3 6 3 12 0 2 0 1 30
40 Aygar, George c 2-5 0-0 0-0 2 0 2 3 4 0 2 0 0 12
05 Bain, Jean g 0-4 0-2 1-2 0 0 0 3 1 3 0 0 2 27
30 Blossom, Marcus g 2-7 0-2 2-2 0 2 2 5 6 1 1 0 1 29
01 Amedee, Rubens 1-1 0-0 2-4 0 0 0 3 4 0 0 0 2 11
03 Morris, Cleophus 0-1 0-1 0-0 0 0 0 3 0 2 3 0 0 13
04 West, Tim 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 5
23 Francois, Jean 5-12 0-1 3-4 3 3 6 1 13 0 4 0 2 28
32 Barnes, Dwayne 3-6 0-1 0-1 1 3 4 3 6 1 1 0 0 15
TEAM ........................................ 3 0 3 1 1
TOTALS 21-58 1-10 23-29 14 15 29 28 66 8 16 0 9 200
TOT-FG 1stH: 12-28 42.9% 2ndH: 9-30 30.0% OT: 0-0 00.0% Game: 36.2% Deadbl
3pt-FG 1stH: 0-4 00.0% 2ndH: 1-6 16.7% OT: 0-0 00.0% Game: 10.0% Rebs
FThrow 1stH: 6-8 75.0% 2ndH: 17-21 81.0% OT: 0-0 00.0% Game: 79.3% 3
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HOME TEAM: Delaware 20-9
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
03 Basit, Ajmal f 3-6 0-0 2-2 3 6 9 4 8 2 2 1 0 20
44 Sessoms, Maurice f 4-7 1-2 2-2 1 3 4 1 11 1 2 1 0 19
22 Rowland, Austen g 2-5 0-1 5-9 0 2 2 2 9 4 3 0 1 26
24 Miller, Greg g 1-3 1-3 4-4 0 1 1 2 7 2 2 0 0 21
25 Wells, Billy g 6-10 3-4 8-8 2 1 3 2 23 4 1 0 4 25
10 Ames, Mike 3-4 2-3 4-4 1 3 4 1 12 3 1 0 0 16
21 Thomas, Anthony 1-1 0-0 1-1 0 1 1 1 3 0 0 0 0 4
23 Wentt, Robin 2-3 1-1 1-2 0 2 2 1 6 0 0 1 0 16
32 Iversen, Ryan 7-10 4-5 2-4 2 2 4 1 20 5 1 0 0 21
33 Knitter, Sean 2-3 0-0 0-0 0 4 4 2 4 0 0 1 0 15
34 Donovan, Brock 1-1 1-1 0-0 0 0 0 2 3 0 1 0 0 4
42 Hindenlang, Dave 2-3 0-0 0-0 2 0 2 3 4 1 0 0 1 13
TEAM ........................................ 0 1 1
TOTALS 34-56 13-20 29-36 11 26 37 22 110 22 13 4 6 200
TOT-FG 1stH: 14-27 51.9% 2ndH: 20-29 69.0% OT: 0-0 00.0% Game: 60.7% Deadbl
3pt-FG 1stH: 7-13 53.8% 2ndH: 6-7 85.7% OT: 0-0 00.0% Game: 65.0% Rebs
FThrow 1stH: 11-14 78.6% 2ndH: 18-22 81.8% OT: 0-0 00.0% Game: 80.6% 3
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OFFICIALS: Joe Mingle, John Hughes, Ray Perone
TECHNICAL FOULS:
Northeastern - Hammick, Tyrone(1) the bench(1)
Delaware - none
ATTENDANCE: 3829
SCORE BY PERIODS: 1st 2nd OT1 OT2 OT3 OT4 TOTAL
Northeastern 30 36 66
Delaware 46 64 110
AMERICA EAST Semi-Final #2 ...Pts in Paint: N-22,D-34,FB Points: N- 02,
D-09...2nd Chance Pts.: N-14,D-09...Pts. off TO: N-15,D-18...UD sets record
for AE tournament win margin (44)...UD advances to 4th straight AE final.
