The Northeastern University men's basketball team came out of the gate on a 14-2 run and never looked back, routing Drexel 79-45 Wednesday night at Matthews Arena.
Four Huskies scored in double digits, led by sophomores Matt Janning and Nkem Ojougboh, who scored 21 and 20 points, respectively. Janning was a perfect 8-for-8 in field goal shooting while Ojougboh was 6-for-7 from the field and 8-for-11 from the free throw line.
Freshman Chaisson Allen added 12 points, seven rebounds, five assists and four steals while sophomore Manny Adako scored 12 points on 6-of-8 shooting. Northeastern, which never trailed in the game, shot 58 percent from the field as a team in the game, including 68 percent in the first half.
The Huskies (6-8, 2-2 CAA) came out roaring as they connected on each of their first six shots, opening up a 12-2 advantage. Coming out of a media timeout, Allen drove in for a layup and missed, but he grabbed his own rebound before the ball was spiked out of his hands out of bounds. Allen then inbounded the ball to Ojougboh for an alley oop dunk, giving NU a 14-2 lead just five minutes into the game.
Drexel cut the lead to five, 17-12, with 10:53 left in the first half, but that was as close as the Dragons would come. The Huskies proceeded to go on a 19-2 run that included a sequence where Janning hit a jumper on a dish from junior Chris Alvarez, stole the ball from Rob Hampton, and then hit another jumper on another assist from Alvarez, who had seven rebounds, four assists and three steals in the game. Also, the Husky defense dominated during that run, forcing six turnovers in a span of 4:37.
Towards the end of the half, Janning fed Ojougboh with a layup dish for a 40-16 lead. Following a missed jumper by Drexel's Kenny Tribbett, Allen hit Janning with a pass and the sophomore captain drained a big three to make it 43-16. Scott Rodgers popped in a three-pointer to end the half and the score was 43-19 NU.
In the second half, it was more of the same as the Huskies dominated the Dragons up and down the court. After Hampton connected on a layup to make it 45-24 Huskies, Janning came right back with another three-pointer, giving NU double of what Drexel had, 48-24.
Drexel turned the ball over four more times between 16:20 and 13:30, one of which Alvarez picked off Evan Neisler and Janning ran down for a layup bucket and a foul. He missed the free throw though, his only missed shot of the game.
Northeastern's largest lead of the contest came at 7:52 when Janning, who a minute earlier took senior Mark Washington's feed in for layup and a foul for a three-point play, connected on two more free throws to make it a 38-point game, 68-30.
The Huskies closed out the game with their reserves on the floor. Sophomore Baptiste Bataille scored seven points in the span of 1:19 as he nailed a long three-pointer and four free throws. Freshman Johan Gunterberg scored NU's last points of the game when he drained a three on a pass from Bataille with 2:20 to play.
The Huskies had their best shooting performance of the season against a Drexel team that was limiting opponents to just 40 percent shooting from the field and 29 percent from three-point range. NU was 68 percent (25-for-43) from the floor, 60 percent (6-for-10) from three-point range and 77 percent (23-for-30) from the charity stripe.
The Northeastern defense was just as impressive as the offense as the team held the Dragons (8-8, 1-3 CAA) to a 29 percent (16-for-55) field goal percentage, 19 percent (5-for-26) from downtown. NU forced 19 turnovers which led to 25 points. The NU frontcourt did an excellent job on All-CAA center Frank Elegar, who was limited to two points in 20 minutes of action.
Randy Oveneke was Drexel's lone double digit scorer, putting in 11 points.
The Huskies, who evened their CAA mark to 2-2, will now travel to Fairfax, Va. to play the George Mason Patriots this Saturday at 2 p.m. The game will be televised on Comcast SportsNet.
Official Basketball Box Score
DREXEL vs Northeastern
1/9/08 7 p.m. at Matthews Arena (Boston, MA)
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VISITORS: DREXEL 8-8, 1-3 CAA
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
25 Oveneke, Randy...... f 4-7 0-0 3-6 4 3 7 4 11 1 1 0 3 33
15 Elegar, Frank....... c 0-3 0-0 2-2 2 2 4 2 2 0 3 0 0 20
00 Hawthorne, Tramayne. g 1-5 1-4 0-0 2 1 3 1 3 2 3 0 1 19
03 Rodgers, Scott...... g 4-14 1-7 0-0 2 1 3 3 9 0 2 1 2 36
11 Colds, Gerald....... g 1-6 1-6 0-0 0 0 0 2 3 0 2 0 1 18
12 Hampton, Rob........ 1-4 0-2 0-0 0 1 1 2 2 3 2 0 0 22
13 Formbor, Yannick.... 1-2 0-0 0-0 1 2 3 0 2 0 0 0 0 6
14 Lally, Bill......... 0-2 0-1 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2
23 Harris, Jamie....... 1-3 1-3 0-0 1 1 2 5 3 1 1 0 0 11
30 Mohl, Chris......... 0-1 0-1 0-0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 2
33 Neisler, Evan....... 0-0 0-0 2-2 1 1 2 1 2 0 3 0 1 8
34 Feurtado, Lance..... 1-4 1-2 0-0 0 1 1 3 3 0 1 0 0 10
42 Tribbett, Kenny..... 1-3 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 4 2 0 1 0 0 12
44 Cameron, Stuart..... 1-1 0-0 1-1 1 1 2 0 3 0 0 0 0 1
TEAM................ 1 1
Totals.............. 16-55 5-26 8-11 15 16 31 27 45 7 19 1 9 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 6-23 26.1% 2nd Half: 10-32 31.3% Game: 29.1% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 3-12 25.0% 2nd Half: 2-14 14.3% Game: 19.2% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 4-6 66.7% 2nd Half: 4-5 80.0% Game: 72.7% 2
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HOME TEAM: Northeastern 6-8, 2-2 CAA
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
02 Alvarez, Chris...... f 0-1 0-0 2-2 1 6 7 3 2 4 2 0 3 27
32 Adako, Manny........ f 6-8 0-0 0-0 1 0 1 2 12 1 4 0 0 26
54 Ojougboh, Nkem...... c 6-7 0-0 8-11 2 4 6 3 20 1 2 0 1 32
03 Allen, Chaisson..... g 2-8 2-4 6-8 1 6 7 1 12 5 1 0 4 30
23 Janning, Matt....... g 8-8 2-2 3-4 0 0 0 0 21 1 1 1 3 29
10 Gunterberg, Johan... 1-2 1-1 0-0 0 0 0 1 3 0 0 0 0 4
15 McDonald, Brian..... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 2
20 Smith, Matt......... 0-2 0-1 0-0 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 0 1 6
24 Spates, Eugene...... 0-3 0-1 0-0 0 4 4 2 0 0 2 1 0 13
25 Bataille, Baptiste.. 1-2 1-1 4-4 0 1 1 1 7 1 0 0 1 11
31 Aragbaye, Allen..... 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 0 0 0 1 1 0 2
50 Washington, Mark.... 1-1 0-0 0-1 0 0 0 0 2 2 0 0 0 18
TEAM................ 1 2 3
Totals.............. 25-43 6-10 23-30 6 25 31 13 79 15 14 3 13 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 15-22 68.2% 2nd Half: 10-21 47.6% Game: 58.1% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 3-5 60.0% 2nd Half: 3-5 60.0% Game: 60.0% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 10-12 83.3% 2nd Half: 13-18 72.2% Game: 76.7% 3
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Officials: John Gaffney, Jim Haney, Jeff Nichols
Technical fouls: DREXEL-None. Northeastern-None.
Attendance: 1782
Score by Periods 1st 2nd Total
DREXEL........................ 19 26 - 45
Northeastern.................. 43 36 - 79
Points in the paint-DREXEL 20,NU 30. Points off turnovers-DREXEL 5,NU 25.
2nd chance points-DREXEL 16,NU 9. Fast break points-DREXEL 4,NU 6.
Bench points-DREXEL 17,NU 12. Score tied-1 time. Lead changed-0 times.
Last FG-DREXEL 2nd-00:17, NU 2nd-02:20.
