The Northeastern University men's basketball team used a 21-5 run in the early minutes of the second half to propel itself to a 70-57 win over Maine Saturday afternoon at Alfond Arena in Orono, Maine.
The win gives the Huskies a 2-2 record on the season while the Black Bears drop to 3-3. It is also Northeastern's fourth straight win over Maine, and the Huskies now lead the all-time series 64-46. Northeastern is also a perfect 5-0 against America East teams since leaving the conference in 2004-05.
Northeastern was led by sophomore captain Matt Janning, who scored 17 points on 6-of-13 shooting. Junior Chris Alvarez came off the bench to score 10 points, dish out a career-high five assists, block a career-high three shots and also grab seven rebounds. He also tied his career high in steals with two. Junior Eugene Spates chipped in 15 points for the Huskies, who shot 62 percent (13-for-21) in the second half to Maine's 32 percent (7-for-22).
The Huskies came out of the gate at the start of the game sluggish as they connected on only three of their first 14 shots. Maine opened up a 10-2 lead with 14:54 remaining, but coming out of the first media timeout, the Huskies went on a 16-2 run and took their first lead of the game when Spates knocked down a three from the right wing at 10:18 to give NU a 13-12 advantage. Alvarez had a big role in the Husky turnaround, scoring seven of NU's 16 points during the run.
NU took five-point leads at 8:05 (20-15) and 5:00 (25-20), but Maine fought back each time. Northeastern scored its final points of the first half at 1:15 when senior captain Mark Washington laid the ball into the basket on a feed from freshman Chaisson Allen to give the Huskies a 29-26 lead. On the final possession of the first half, Maine's Junior Bernal hit a wild three-pointer from 25 feet out as the shot clock hit zero to tie the game at 29-29 going into the locker room.
To open the second half, the two teams traded points for the first few minutes and the game was tied 35-35 when sophomore Manny Adako laid up on a dish from Janning to make it 37-35, NU. That started a 10-0 Huskies that included two layups by Janning, a dunk by sophomore Nkem Ojougboh and a layup by Washington on a nifty feed from Alvarez.
The 10-0 run turned into a 21-5 run as the Huskies dominated for a solid nine minutes of the second half. Spates scored six points in less than two minutes to help the Huskies take a 56-40 lead with less than eight minutes remaining.
Spates then put the game out of reach with a three-pointer on a dish from Allen, one of five assists from the freshman in the game, to give NU a 17-point lead, 61-44, its largest lead of the game.
Meanwhile, the Husky defense buckled down in the second half and held the Black Bears to 7-of-22 shooting after Maine shot 44 percent (11-for-25) in the first half. Northeastern forced 19 Maine turnovers in the game, including 10 in the second half. Maine forward Mark Socoby scored 10 points on 3-of-5 shooting in the first half, but was only 1-for-5 in the second half and finished the game with 17 points and eight rebounds.
Brian Andre also scored 17 points for the Black Bears in the defeat.
The Huskies will wrap up their season-opening five-game road trip with a contest at Rhode Island at the Ryan Center in Kingston, R.I. at 7 p.m. Northeastern's home and CAA opener is next Saturday, Dec. 1 versus James Madison at Matthews Arena at 1 p.m.
Official Basketball Box Score
Northeastern vs Maine
11/24/07 12:00 PM at Alfond Arena, Orono, Maine
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VISITORS: Northeastern 2-2
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
23 Janning, Matt....... f 6-13 1-6 4-7 1 6 7 3 17 2 4 0 0 35
32 Adako, Manny........ f 4-7 0-0 0-0 0 3 3 4 8 1 2 0 1 23
54 Ojougboh, Nkem...... c 3-5 0-0 3-4 1 2 3 2 9 2 2 0 1 30
03 Allen, Chaisson..... g 3-10 0-1 1-1 1 3 4 1 7 5 1 0 2 38
20 Smith, Matt......... g 0-2 0-1 0-0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 7
02 Alvarez, Chris...... 4-6 2-2 0-2 3 4 7 0 10 5 0 3 2 30
24 Spates, Eugene...... 3-7 2-4 7-8 1 3 4 2 15 1 0 0 0 15
25 Bataille, Baptiste.. 0-2 0-2 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 2 5
31 Aragbaye, Allen..... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0
50 Washington, Mark.... 2-2 0-0 0-0 1 1 2 3 4 1 0 0 0 17
TEAM................ 2 1 3
Totals.............. 25-54 5-16 15-22 10 24 34 16 70 18 10 3 8 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 12-33 36.4% 2nd Half: 13-21 61.9% Game: 46.3% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 4-12 33.3% 2nd Half: 1-4 25.0% Game: 31.3% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 1-1 100 % 2nd Half: 14-21 66.7% Game: 68.2% 1
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HOME TEAM: Maine 3-3
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
22 Socoby, Mark........ f 4-10 2-6 7-11 1 7 8 4 17 3 5 0 0 39
33 Cook, Jordan........ f 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 2 2 1 0 1 0 0 0 13
23 Andre, Brian........ c 7-11 0-0 3-4 4 2 6 4 17 1 2 2 1 28
11 Hight, Jason........ g 0-2 0-1 0-0 0 3 3 5 0 1 3 0 1 24
12 Bernal, Junior...... g 5-15 1-3 3-7 3 3 6 1 14 3 4 0 3 38
05 Hanzlik, Robby...... 0-2 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 4
21 McNally, Sean....... 1-2 1-1 2-2 1 1 2 2 5 2 2 0 1 17
32 Costigan, Sean...... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 17
44 Tchekane Bofia, Phil 1-5 0-2 2-2 1 3 4 3 4 0 2 0 0 20
TEAM................ 1 2 3 1
Totals.............. 18-47 4-13 17-26 11 25 36 22 57 11 19 2 7 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 11-25 44.0% 2nd Half: 7-22 31.8% Game: 38.3% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 3-6 50.0% 2nd Half: 1-7 14.3% Game: 30.8% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 4-8 50.0% 2nd Half: 13-18 72.2% Game: 65.4% 3
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Officials: Gary Pucino, Tim Kelly, Andrew Moratta
Technical fouls: Northeastern-None. Maine-None.
Attendance: 1388
Score by Periods 1st 2nd Total
Northeastern.................. 29 41 - 70
Maine......................... 29 28 - 57
Points in the paint-NU 30,MAINE 22. Points off turnovers-NU 17,MAINE 7.
2nd chance points-NU 6,MAINE 15. Fast break points-NU 4,MAINE 4.
Bench points-NU 29,MAINE 9. Score tied-6 times. Lead changed-5 times.
Last FG-NU 2nd-00:03, MAINE 2nd-01:13.
