Senior Marcus Barnes scored a season-high 27 points to lead a trio of 20-point scorers for Northeastern as the second-seeded Huskies withstood a furious second-half rally to beat Maine, 86-73, in the semifinals of the America East Championship Sunday afternoon at the Events Center in Binghamton, N.Y.
The win earned the Huskies (21-8) a berth in the conference championship game against top-seeded Vermont, which defeated No. 5 Binghamton, 76-65, in the other semifinal matchup. That game will be played Saturday, March 12 at Patrick Gym in Burlington, Vt. It will tip off at 11:30 a.m. and be carried live on ESPN.
The teams traded baskets in the early going. With the Black Bears leading 22-21, Barnes sparked NU to a 9-0 run that put it up 30-21. He started it by making a layup, then stuck a jumper and drained a three-pointer. Freshman Shawn James' bucket with 4:47 left in the half concluded the run.
Kevin Reed made a free throw to cut the deficit to eight, but the Huskies outscored Maine 15-4 the rest of the half to take a 45-27 lead into the intermission. NU took its largest lead of the stanza, 45-25, on a Barnes three with 30 seconds remaining. In all, Northeastern closed the half on a 24-5 run, with Barnes scoring 14 in that stretch.
The Huskies remained in control in the beginning of the second half, widening the margin to a game-high 21, 52-31, on an alley-oop from junior Jose Juan Barea to sophomore Bobby Kelly.
Maine (14-15) then came alive, scoring 31 of the next 42 points. Reed was on fire during that stretch, hitting six treys and scoring 20 of his game-high 28 points. His shot from long range with just over seven minutes to play brought the Black Bears within one, 63-62.
With its season on the line, Northeastern responded with a decisive 11-0 run. Barnes started it with a layup. Kelly then came up with a loose ball and found Barnes ahead of the pack on a breakaway.
Barea made back-to-back hoops to increase the margin to nine, and James capped the run with a free throw and a layup.
Barea fell two rebounds shy of a triple-double. He scored 21 points and handed out 11 assists. James had 21 points, eight rebounds and five blocks. Kelly tallied 10 points to round out the double-digit scorers for Northeastern.
Joe Campbell recorded a double-double of 15 points and 10 rebounds for Maine, while Ernest Turner chipped in with 10.
The win was the Huskies' eighth straight, marking their longest winning streak since the 1986-87 team ran off 11 victories in a row.
This will be the ninth time Northeastern has played in the America East championship game. They are 7-1 in their eight previous appearances.
Official Basketball Box Score
Maine vs Northeastern
03/06/05 2:30 p.m. at Events Center, Vestal, N.Y.
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VISITORS: Maine (14-15)
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
23 Dubois, David....... f 1-3 0-0 2-2 3 2 5 1 4 1 1 0 0 14
32 Campbell, Joe....... f 5-12 2-5 3-4 2 8 10 5 15 1 3 2 1 32
20 Flavin, Mark........ c 3-11 0-0 0-0 1 5 6 5 6 3 5 0 0 22
21 Reed, Kevin......... g 10-22 7-14 1-2 1 3 4 4 28 1 1 0 2 37
51 Markwood, Chris..... g 2-5 1-3 0-0 0 4 4 0 5 5 2 0 1 34
03 Turner, Ernest...... 4-13 2-5 0-0 2 3 5 4 10 2 2 0 0 30
04 Bruff, Chris........ 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2
11 Hight, Jason........ 1-5 1-3 0-0 1 2 3 1 3 2 3 0 0 17
40 Ahvenniemi, Olli.... 1-1 0-0 0-0 2 2 4 4 2 0 2 1 0 12
45 Harknell, Ammar..... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0+
Team................ 1 3 4
Totals.............. 27-72 13-30 6-8 13 32 45 24 73 15 19 3 4 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 11-32 34.4% 2nd Half: 16-40 40.0% Game: 37.5% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 2-12 16.7% 2nd Half: 11-18 61.1% Game: 43.3% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 3-4 75.0% 2nd Half: 3-4 75.0% Game: 75.0% 1
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HOME TEAM: Northeastern (21-8)
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
14 Davis, Bennet....... f 2-10 0-2 2-4 4 8 12 1 6 1 0 2 2 33
21 James, Shawn........ f 8-9 0-0 5-10 2 6 8 3 21 1 1 5 0 30
03 Barnes, Marcus...... g 10-19 3-9 4-6 1 2 3 2 27 0 1 0 1 34
05 Barea, Jose Juan.... g 7-18 2-7 4-7 1 7 8 3 20 11 3 0 1 31
22 Kelly, Bobby........ g 4-6 1-1 1-2 1 3 4 0 10 2 2 0 2 28
11 Martinez, Adrian.... 1-2 0-1 0-0 0 1 1 0 2 1 0 0 1 11
12 Davis, Aaron........ 0-2 0-2 0-0 1 2 3 1 0 0 0 0 0 17
33 Cole, Janon......... 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 14
50 Washington, Mark.... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 2
TEAM................ 1 2 3
Totals.............. 32-68 6-22 16-29 11 32 43 12 86 16 8 7 8 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 18-36 50.0% 2nd Half: 14-32 43.8% Game: 47.1% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 4-16 25.0% 2nd Half: 2-6 33.3% Game: 27.3% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 5-8 62.5% 2nd Half: 11-21 52.4% Game: 55.2% 6,1
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Officials: Fran Connolly, John Hughes, Jack Sweeney
Technical fouls: Maine-None. Northeastern-Barea, Jose Juan.
Attendance: 5003
Score by Periods 1st 2nd Total
Maine......................... 27 46 - 73
Northeastern.................. 45 41 - 86
2005 Choice Hotels America East Men's Basketball Championship.
Northeastern advances to play Vermont in championship game on March 12 at UVM.
Points in the paint-MAINE 26,NU 48. Points off turnovers-MAINE 6,NU 14.
2nd chance points-MAINE 19,NU 7. Fast break points-MAINE 0,NU 18.
Bench points-MAINE 15,NU 2. Score tied-4 times. Lead changed-11 times.
Last FG-MAINE 2nd-00:20, NU 2nd-01:10.
