The Northeastern men's basketball went up to Durham, N.H. Monday night, took a 14-point halftime lead and held off a late New Hampshire rally with clutch shooting and strong defense to defeat the Wildcats 62-57 at Lundholm Gymnasium.
The win is Northeastern's 86th over New Hampshire all-time and improves the team's record against America East teams since last season to 6-0.
Northeastern was cruising for most of the game and held a 48-34 lead with 14 minutes left in the contest as freshman Johan Gunterberg knocked down a three to give the Huskies a 14-point cushion.
However, the Wildcats came all the way back with a 21-8 run that was aided by nine points from UNH senior forward Mike Christensen. They cut the deficit to one, 56-55, when Tyrece Gibbs hit a three at 4:30.
The Huskies immediately turned the tide in their favor as freshman Chaisson Allen hit one of two free throws to make it 57-55 and then, after a Gibbs missed three, junior Matt Smith sank a clutch three on a dish from junior Chris Alvarez to open up a five-point advantage, 60-55, with 3:26 left to play.
Alvin Abreu hit free throws for UNH to cut it to 60-57. The Wildcats had the ball with under 30 seconds left and a chance to tie but sophomore Nkem Ojougboh blocked a Abreu's attempted layup and Alvarez scooped up the rebound and was fouled. Alvarez hit his free throws to make it 62-57 and UNH missed its final three shots to end the game.
Smith ended the game with a career-high 13 points on 4-of-8 shooting. Janning finished with 16 points. Ojougboh came up with his fifth double-digit rebounding game, two blocks and three steals.
Christensen led all scorers with 17 points. Dane DiLiegro scored 12 points and added 12 boards.
The Huskies had controlled the game from the outset as they rained three-point shots on the Wildcats. With a 10-7 leading coming out of the first media timeout, Gunterberg nailed two threes in a span of 1:13 to make it 16-7, Northeastern. The Huskies took a double-digit lead, 19-9, at 12:11, but the Wildcats made it interesting, going on a 7-0 run to cut the deficit to 19-16.
NU took over from there, going on a 19-8 run to close the first half with a 38-24 advantage. The Huskies got the 14-point halftime lead on the strength of seven three-pointers on 15 attempts (46.7 percent), three by Gunterberg and two by Janning, who was 5-of-9 from the field and scored 12 points in the first frame.
Gunterberg scored a career-high 12 points, shooting 4-for-7 from behind the arc.
The Huskies will continue their tour of New England with a trip to Storrs, Conn. to take on the Connecticut Huskies this Thursday at Gampel Pavillion at 7:30 p.m.
Official Basketball Box Score
Northeastern vs New Hampshire
12/03/07 7 p.m. at Lundholm Gymnasium, Durham, N.H.
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VISITORS: Northeastern 3-4, 0-1
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
03 Allen, Chaisson..... * 1-5 0-2 2-3 1 7 8 1 4 6 3 0 2 36
20 Smith, Matt......... * 4-8 3-4 2-2 1 1 2 2 13 0 1 0 0 25
23 Janning, Matt....... * 7-15 2-7 0-0 1 2 3 1 16 1 5 1 0 39
32 Adako, Manny........ * 2-4 0-0 1-2 0 2 2 3 5 0 0 0 0 15
54 Ojougboh, Nkem...... * 2-5 0-0 3-6 1 9 10 3 7 2 2 2 3 31
02 Alvarez, Chris...... 0-2 0-0 2-2 2 3 5 2 2 1 0 1 1 21
10 Gunterberg, Johan... 4-7 4-7 0-0 0 0 0 1 12 0 1 0 0 19
24 Spates, Eugene...... 1-3 1-3 0-0 0 1 1 1 3 0 0 0 0 10
25 Bataille, Baptiste.. 0-2 0-1 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 3
50 Washington, Mark.... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
TEAM................ 1 3 4 1
Totals.............. 21-51 10-24 10-15 7 28 35 14 62 10 13 4 6 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 14-27 51.9% 2nd Half: 7-24 29.2% Game: 41.2% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 7-15 46.7% 2nd Half: 3-9 33.3% Game: 41.7% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 3-5 60.0% 2nd Half: 7-10 70.0% Game: 66.7% 2
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HOME TEAM: New Hampshire 3-4, 0-0
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
01 DiLiegro, Dane...... * 5-6 0-0 2-4 8 4 12 3 12 0 2 0 0 29
04 Gibbs, Tyrece....... * 3-10 1-6 2-2 1 1 2 4 9 2 5 0 2 31
21 Conley, Tyrone...... * 2-12 1-7 0-0 0 4 4 4 5 2 1 0 1 36
23 Gilchrese, Eric..... * 1-6 0-3 0-0 1 2 3 3 2 0 1 0 1 22
33 Christensen, Mike... * 7-13 1-6 2-4 0 5 5 2 17 3 3 1 0 35
11 Valladares, James... 1-2 0-0 0-0 2 0 2 0 2 0 0 0 0 3
15 Tchatchoua, Rony.... 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 2 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 14
25 Abreu, Alvin........ 3-11 2-7 2-2 2 3 5 2 10 0 0 0 0 31
TEAM................ 4 4
Totals.............. 22-61 5-29 8-12 14 25 39 18 57 7 12 1 4 201
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 9-31 29.0% 2nd Half: 13-30 43.3% Game: 36.1% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 2-12 16.7% 2nd Half: 3-17 17.6% Game: 17.2% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 4-4 100 % 2nd Half: 4-8 50.0% Game: 66.7% 1,1
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Officials: Gary Pucino, Michael Stephens, Rick Mansur
Technical fouls: Northeastern-None. New Hampshire-None.
Attendance: 372
Score by Periods 1st 2nd Total
Northeastern.................. 38 24 - 62
New Hampshire................. 24 33 - 57
Points in the paint-NU 10,UNH 24. Points off turnovers-NU 13,UNH 15.
2nd chance points-NU 9,UNH 13. Fast break points-NU 2,UNH 4.
Bench points-NU 17,UNH 12. Score tied-0 times. Lead changed-2 times.
Last FG-NU 2nd-03:26, UNH 2nd-04:30.
