Jose Juan Barea scored a game-high 23 points, 11 in a decisive 17-4 first-half run, to lead Northeastern to a 76-59 win over Hartford Wednesday night in front of 937 at Solomon Court.
The win improves the Huskies' home record to 7-0, their best start on their own floor since the 1986-87 season, when they went 12-0. It also ups their America East mark to 4-1, their best start in conference play since 1994-95.
Barea, who was 7-for-17 from the floor and 7-for-8 from the line, also dished out a game-high five assists. It is the 18th straight time he has scored in double digits, the longest such streak in America East.
Northeastern (10-6, 4-1) fell behind 10-2 to start the game, but then hit five shots in a row, the last one a three-pointer by D'wan Youmans, to take a 14-12 lead.
With 10 minutes to play and the score tied 20-20, Barea made a pair of free throws to ignite the Huskies' 17-4 run, spanning 6:47, that put them up 37-24. The lead never dipped into single digits after that.
Javorie Wilson scored 14 points and pulled down seven rebounds for NU, while Jesse Dunn contributed 11 and Bennet Davis 10. Sylbrin Robinson had his second straight near-double-double, with eight points and 11 boards.
Northeastern was without two-fifths of its starting lineup as center Cornellius Wright sat out his third game in a row with a knee injury and Marcus Barnes served the first of a two-game suspension stemming from his involvement in an incident in NU's Jan. 7 game at Vermont.
Ryan Stys led the Hawks (4-8, 0-4) with 20 points.
The Huskies shot 49 percent (24-for-49) from the field as opposed to 37 percent (23-for-62) for Hartford. The real difference, however, was three-point shooting; NU was 9-for-23 (39 percent) from behind the arc whereas UH made just four of 26 (15 percent) from long range.
Northeastern will face UMBC for the first time Saturday at 7 p.m. in Baltimore, Md.
VISITORS: Hartford 4-8, 0-4 AE
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
04 Cook, Aaron......... * 4-14 2-11 2-2 0 1 1 4 12 2 0 0 3 29
20 Stys, Ryan.......... * 8-21 2-11 2-5 0 4 4 1 20 3 4 0 1 39
33 Regan, Sean......... * 2-5 0-0 2-3 3 6 9 5 6 0 1 0 0 28
34 Taylor, Bo.......... * 3-7 0-2 0-0 3 2 5 3 6 0 2 0 1 34
55 Zimnickas, Alex..... * 3-4 0-0 1-1 1 1 2 4 7 0 0 0 0 19
10 Ford, Charles....... 2-6 0-2 0-0 0 3 3 1 4 2 2 0 0 25
15 Lowndes, Bernard.... 0-1 0-0 0-0 1 0 1 1 0 0 1 0 0 2
21 Bosley, Louis....... 1-2 0-0 2-4 2 3 5 0 4 0 2 2 0 13
22 Baker, Rich......... 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 2 0 2 1 0 2 11
TEAM................ 4 1 5
Totals.............. 23-62 4-26 9-15 14 21 35 21 59 9 13 2 7 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 11-32 34.4% 2nd Half: 12-30 40.0% Game: 37.1% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 1-12 8.3% 2nd Half: 3-14 21.4% Game: 15.4% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 8-13 61.5% 2nd Half: 1-2 50.0% Game: 60.0% 4
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HOME TEAM: Northeastern 10-6, 4-1 AE
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
04 Wilson, Javorie..... * 3-9 2-7 6-8 4 3 7 0 14 0 1 0 0 38
05 Barea, Jose Juan.... * 7-17 2-6 7-8 0 1 1 2 23 5 2 0 1 34
14 Davis, Bennet....... * 5-8 0-1 0-1 1 5 6 3 10 1 1 2 0 18
22 Kelly, Bobby........ * 1-2 1-2 1-2 0 2 2 2 4 1 2 0 2 27
33 Robinson, Sylbrin... * 3-6 0-1 2-6 3 8 11 2 8 2 2 3 1 38
02 Youmans, D'wan...... 2-3 2-3 0-1 0 1 1 2 6 1 1 0 0 15
32 Dunn, Jesse......... 3-4 2-3 3-4 0 1 1 0 11 1 3 1 0 21
42 Melvin, Lateef...... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 0 0 2 0 0 3 9
TEAM................ 5 5 1
Totals.............. 24-49 9-23 19-30 8 27 35 11 76 13 13 6 7 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 12-27 44.4% 2nd Half: 12-22 54.5% Game: 49.0% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 6-13 46.2% 2nd Half: 3-10 30.0% Game: 39.1% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 12-17 70.6% 2nd Half: 7-13 53.8% Game: 63.3% 7
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Officials: Richard Giallella, Jeff Bryant, John Regan
Technical fouls: Hartford-None. Northeastern-None.
Attendance: 937
Score by Periods 1st 2nd Total
Hartford...................... 31 28 - 59
Northeastern.................. 42 34 - 76
Points in the paint-UH 30,NU 22. Points off turnovers-UH 7,NU 19.
2nd chance points-UH 5,NU 5. Fast break points-UH 8,NU 2.
Bench points-UH 8,NU 17. Score tied-2 times. Lead changed-1 time.
Last FG-UH 2nd-00:56, NU 2nd-00:22.
