Boston College's Tyrese Rice, who had been 0-for-10 from the floor in the game, hit a running jumper in the lane with two seconds left to break a 55-55 tie and send the Eagles to a 57-55 victory over the Northeastern men's basketball team Saturday afternoon at Conte Forum.
The heartbreaking loss is Northeastern's fifth single-digit defeat this season and the second coming against an ACC opponent. Northeastern (4-6) took Maryland to overtime before falling 74-72 on Nov. 15.
The Huskies led for all but 8:27 of the contest, but the Eagles (8-2) overcame what was at one point a 12-point first half deficit.
In the second half, the Huskies held a six-point lead at 14:44, 40-34, after sophomore Matt Janning sank a three-pointer on a dish from sophomore Nkem Ojougboh. From there, the Eagles bounced back and took a brief 41-40 lead when Rakim Sanders buried one of his four three-pointers of the game.
Freshman Chaisson Allen answered the call as he stole the ball from Shamar Spears on the next BC possession and sophomore Manny Adako hit a layup to give NU the lead again, 42-41, with 12:30 left to play.
Northeastern would get the lead to five points, 48-43, when senior captain Mark Washington picked up a steal and then nailed a fast break dunk at 6:26.
The Eagles answered back again as Sanders hit another three. Allen came back down the court with a layup before Corey Raji and Sanders hit layups on back-to-back possessions to tie the game at 50-50 with 4:02 remaining.
Sanders would break the tie at 2:45 as he drained another three-pointer, giving BC a 53-50 lead. Adako came up clutch with a 10-footer that made itt 53-52. After a missed free throw by Sanders, Janning gave the Huskies the lead once again as he sank a big three-pointer from the top of the key on a pass from Allen. Northeastern led 55-53 with 1:30 remaining.
The Eagles would not be denied though as Rice missed a jumper and Spears collected the rebound and put it in to the basket to tie it up again, 55-55.
With 50 seconds left, the Huskies tried to take the lead, but junior Eugene Spates' two-point jumper in traffic was blocked by Spears and rebounded by Rice. After a timeout, Rice took control of the ball, ran into the lane and hit his game-winning running jumper.
Rice finished with just five points, but also had eight assists and four steals, playing all 40 minutes. Sanders led the Eagles, who shot 40.4 percent from the field, with 20 points.
For the Huskies, Adako was 8-of-9 from the floor, scoring 16 points. Janning and Ojougboh each scored 11 points while Allen tied his career-high of nine assists. The Huskies shot 46.3 percent for the game, but committed 19 turnovers that led to 16 BC points. Also, the Huskies were only able to get to the free throw line five times, hitting on only two of those shots.
The Eagles opened the first half with an 11-8 lead through the first 4:26 of the first half, but that preceded a 13-0 Huskies run that gave NU a 21-11 lead with 10:53 remaining. Spates started the run with a jumper coming out of the media timeout. Following a Sanders turnover, Adako put up a 15-footer to give the Huskies the 12-11 lead. On the next Husky possession, Spates dished to Ojougboh, who laid the ball in. Janning then knocked down a three, Adako hit a layup and Ojougboh hit another layup to make it 21-11. The Eagles were 0-for-5 from the field during the Husky charge.
Northeastern built a 12-point advantage in the middle of the half. Allen drew an intentional foul from John Oates, missed the first free throw and hit the second to make it 23-14. Ojougboh then nailed a jumper from 17 feet out to make it 25-14 NU at 8:48. Following a Raji three, Janning hit a jumper and then at 7:00, Allen fed Ojougboh a pass that he laid in for a bucket to make it 29-17, the Huskies' largest lead of the contest.
The Eagles clawed back to make it only a six-point deficit at the half, 31-26. BC held the Husky offense to only one field goal in the final seven minutes to give itself a chance to come back, which it did in the second half.
Northeastern will be off for the next week and will resume action on Sunday, Dec. 30 when it goes to the Carrier Dome to take on Syracuse at 1 p.m. The game will be carried live on Time Warner Cable, channel 26, in the upstate New York region.
Official Basketball Box Score
Northeastern vs Boston College
12-22-07 4 p.m. at Silvio O. Conte Forum, Chestnut Hill, MA
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VISITORS: Northeastern 4-6
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
24 Spates, Eugene...... f 3-10 0-4 0-0 2 3 5 1 6 1 1 1 0 29
32 Adako, Manny........ f 8-9 0-0 0-0 1 6 7 2 16 0 0 0 1 27
54 Ojougboh, Nkem...... c 5-10 0-0 1-2 2 2 4 2 11 1 2 0 0 37
03 Allen, Chaisson..... g 2-8 0-2 1-3 3 2 5 2 5 9 6 0 2 35
23 Janning, Matt....... g 4-8 3-4 0-0 0 1 1 4 11 3 5 0 0 30
02 Alvarez, Chris...... 2-2 0-0 0-0 1 0 1 2 4 1 4 0 1 24
10 Gunterberg, Johan... 0-6 0-6 0-0 0 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 7
50 Washington, Mark.... 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 2 2 2 1 0 2 11
TEAM................ 4 2 6
Totals.............. 25-54 3-16 2-5 13 19 32 15 55 17 19 1 6 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 14-28 50.0% 2nd Half: 11-26 42.3% Game: 46.3% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 1-7 14.3% 2nd Half: 2-9 22.2% Game: 18.8% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 2-4 50.0% 2nd Half: 0-1 0.0% Game: 40.0% 2
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HOME TEAM: Boston College 8-2
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
15 Sanders,Rakim....... f 7-11 4-6 2-3 0 1 1 1 20 0 3 0 1 27
34 Spears,Shamari...... f 4-7 0-0 0-0 5 1 6 2 8 1 5 1 2 33
44 Blair,Tyrelle....... c 2-4 0-0 2-2 3 1 4 3 6 0 3 4 1 26
04 Rice,Tyrese......... g 1-11 0-5 3-4 0 6 6 1 5 8 2 0 4 40
21 Roche,Tyler......... g 1-6 1-4 0-0 0 0 0 0 3 2 1 0 1 20
05 Paris,Biko.......... 1-3 0-1 1-2 1 1 2 0 3 0 0 0 0 8
11 Raji,Corey.......... 5-8 1-2 1-1 2 4 6 2 12 1 2 0 1 26
32 Oates,John.......... 0-2 0-2 0-0 0 2 2 1 0 0 1 0 0 20
TEAM................ 1 1 2
Totals.............. 21-52 6-20 9-12 12 17 29 10 57 12 17 5 10 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 9-24 37.5% 2nd Half: 12-28 42.9% Game: 40.4% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 2-10 20.0% 2nd Half: 4-10 40.0% Game: 30.0% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 6-7 85.7% 2nd Half: 3-5 60.0% Game: 75.0% 3
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Officials: Les Jones, Roger Ayers, Brian Dorsey
Technical fouls: Northeastern-None. Boston College-None.
Attendance: 6019
Score by Periods 1st 2nd Total
Northeastern.................. 31 24 - 55
Boston College................ 26 31 - 57
Points in the paint-NU 26,BC 26. Points off turnovers-NU 12,BC 16.
2nd chance points-NU 6,BC 17. Fast break points-NU 0,BC 0.
Bench points-NU 6,BC 15. Score tied-5 times. Lead changed-8 times.
Last FG-NU 2nd-01:30, BC 2nd-00:03.
