Sophomore Manny Adako scored a career-high 19 points on 8-of-12 shooting to lead the Northeastern University men's basketball team to a 76-73 victory over Harvard Wednesday night at Matthews Arena.
The Huskies (4-5) picked up their first home win of the season and sent the Crimson (4-9) to their fifth consecutive loss.
Adako scored 13 of his 19 points in the first half. He was one of four Huskies to post double-digit points. Sophomore Matt Janning scored 17 points, sophomore Nkem Ojougboh added 14 points and nine rebounds while junior Eugene Spates chipped in 12 points, nailing three shots from behind the arc.
Northeastern was sharp in the first half, shooting 51.7 percent. The Huskies built a 22-14 lead with 8:52 remaining, but Harvard was feisty, coming back to cut the deficit to three, 34-31 as Dan McGeary hit three-pointers on consecutive possessions at 4:38 and 3:55.
Down 41-35 with just over a minute remaining in the half, McGeary nailed another three to make it 41-38, Huskies. Adako followed with a layup on a dish from freshman Chaisson Allen to go into the halftime break with a 43-38 advantage.
Harvard opened the second half with a 10-4 run to take a 48-47 lead with 15:13 left. From there, the two teams traded the lead three times. Ojougboh hit an inside layup on a feed from junior Chris Alvarez to give the Huskies a 53-52 lead with 11:23 left. That sparked a 10-1 Husky run that culminated with Allen stripping Pat Magnarelli and hitting a fast break layup.
Harvard hung around, but was unable to come closer than three points. In the final seconds, Janning connected on two free throws to give Northeastern a 76-71 lead. Jeremy Lin followed with a layup to make it 76-73. Sophomore Baptiste Bataille was then fouled, but he missed both of his free throws to give Harvard a chance. With four seconds left, Harvard inbounded, but Drew Housman was unable to get a shot off in time.
Housman led the Crimson with 16 points. Evan Harris added 13. Harvard shot 59.2 percent for the game, but got to the foul line only 13 times in contrast to Northeastern's 29 free throw attempts.
Northeastern made only six turnovers in the game while also capitalizing on Harvard's turnovers. They converted 12 Crimson mistakes into 13 points while Harvard scored only four points off of NU's turnovers.
The Huskies will look to build momentum this Saturday when they travel across town to take on the Boston College Eagles at 4 p.m. The game will be televised live on NESN.
Official Basketball Box Score
HARVARD vs Northeastern
12/19/07 7 p.m. at Matthews Arena (Boston, MA)
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VISITORS: HARVARD 4-9
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
22 HARRIS, Evan........ f 6-8 0-0 1-1 2 4 6 2 13 3 2 2 0 37
33 MAGNARELLI, Pat..... f 5-9 0-0 2-4 0 5 5 4 12 2 2 0 1 36
10 HOUSMAN, Drew....... g 4-7 1-2 7-7 0 2 2 4 16 5 3 0 1 33
11 LIN, Jeremy......... g 5-8 0-1 0-0 2 3 5 4 10 4 3 1 2 33
32 PUSAR, Andrew....... g 4-7 0-1 0-0 1 3 4 3 8 3 2 0 0 27
03 McGEARY, Dan........ 4-9 4-9 0-0 0 1 1 2 12 0 0 0 0 25
21 CAREY, T.J.......... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
24 MILLER, Doug........ 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
30 FITZGERALD, Kyle.... 1-1 0-0 0-1 1 0 1 2 2 0 0 0 0 6
31 DEMUYAKOR, Adam..... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1
Team................ 2 2
Totals.............. 29-49 5-13 10-13 6 20 26 22 73 17 12 3 4 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 15-27 55.6% 2nd Half: 14-22 63.6% Game: 59.2% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 4-8 50.0% 2nd Half: 1-5 20.0% Game: 38.5% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 4-5 80.0% 2nd Half: 6-8 75.0% Game: 76.9% 2
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HOME TEAM: Northeastern 4-5
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
20 Smith, Matt......... f 1-3 1-3 0-0 0 0 0 1 3 1 0 0 0 5
32 Adako, Manny........ f 8-12 0-0 3-4 4 2 6 2 19 2 1 0 0 30
54 Ojougboh, Nkem...... c 3-7 0-0 8-12 4 5 9 1 14 2 0 0 0 32
03 Allen, Chaisson..... g 3-5 0-1 1-1 0 0 0 4 7 4 1 0 2 36
23 Janning, Matt....... g 6-15 1-4 4-4 0 3 3 1 17 4 2 0 2 39
02 Alvarez, Chris...... 1-3 0-1 0-0 1 1 2 1 2 1 0 0 1 16
10 Gunterberg, Johan... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 2
24 Spates, Eugene...... 4-8 3-6 1-2 0 1 1 2 12 1 0 0 0 18
25 Bataille, Baptiste.. 0-1 0-1 2-4 2 1 3 2 2 1 2 0 0 18
50 Washington, Mark.... 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 4
TEAM................ 2 2 4
Totals.............. 26-55 5-16 19-27 13 15 28 16 76 16 6 0 5 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 15-29 51.7% 2nd Half: 11-26 42.3% Game: 47.3% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 3-8 37.5% 2nd Half: 2-8 25.0% Game: 31.3% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 10-12 83.3% 2nd Half: 9-15 60.0% Game: 70.4% 4
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Officials: John Gaffney, Jeff Nichols, Gary Prager
Technical fouls: HARVARD-None. Northeastern-None.
Attendance: 932
Score by Periods 1st 2nd Total
HARVARD....................... 38 35 - 73
Northeastern.................. 43 33 - 76
Points in the paint-HARV 40,NU 26. Points off turnovers-HARV 4,NU 13.
2nd chance points-HARV 12,NU 14. Fast break points-HARV 4,NU 2.
Bench points-HARV 14,NU 16. Score tied-3 times. Lead changed-9 times.
Last FG-HARV 2nd-00:06, NU 2nd-03:03.
