The Northeastern men's basketball team had four players score in double digits, and the Husky defense once again kept its opponent at bay by holding Delaware to 30.9 percent shooting as the Huskies came away with a 67-47 victory Thursday night at the Bob Carpenter Center in Newark, Del.
Northeastern (11-5, 6-0 CAA) has now won five straight and eight of its last nine games to remain undefeated in the conference. The Huskies have also now beaten Delaware eight straight times, four straight in Newark. The key to the run has been NU's defense as the Huskies have now held their CAA opponents to less than 55 points and less than 40 percent shooting in six straight conference games.
Matt Janning, Nkem Ojougboh, Manny Adako and Chaisson Allen all scored in double figures with Janning and Ojougboh leading the way with 12 points.
As has been the case over the last four games, the Huskies got the game started with a big run, scoring 15 of the game's first 17 points. Adako had a pair of early baskets, as did Ojougboh, who also connected on a pair of free throws. Spates was fouled attempting a three-pointer, and he made all his free throws. Janning made it 15-2 with a jumper in the lane. Over the last five games, the Huskies have outscored their opponents 96-40 in the first 10 minutes of the game.
Delaware answered back with a short 6-0 run that included a tip-in and a layup from Jim Ledsome. The score was 15-8 in favor of NU with 10:33 left.
Janning then went on a run of his own to reclaim a double-digit lead. He broke UD's 6-0 run by draining a three at 9:47. He then stripped Marc Egerson of the ball and went in for a layup. He closed the 8-0 NU run with another trey at 8:29 as the Huskies went up 23-8.
Northeastern grabbed a 17-point lead, 28-11, after Matt Smith knocked down a three-pointer and Chris Alvarez grabbed a steal, dished to Baptiste Bataille, who then passed back to Alvarez for a layup.
However, Delaware roared back, ending the half on an 11-2 run to cut the deficit to seven points, 32-25. Egerson drove to the basket and hit a layup at 3:57. He then hit a pair of free throws after drawing a foul. Alphonso Dawson and Johnson then nailed three-pointers to cut it to six points. Adako hit a pair free throws at 1:21 before Jawan Carter made one of two foul shots at 1:09 to cap the first half scoring.
In the second half, the teams traded points for a while before the Blue Hens went on a mini-run after D.J. Boney and Brian Johnson drained three-pointers to cut the NU lead to seven, 44-37, with 10:57 to play in the game.
Adako hit a jumper in the lane to bump the lead back to nine, but Ledsome made a ferocious dunk at 10:12 off a feed from Johnson to wake up the Delaware fans.
However, the Huskies shut the door quickly when Adako scored an easy layup after a nice pass from Allen. Then after Edwin Santiago missed a three for UD, Allen brought the ball back down and passed inside to Adako, who kicked the ball back out in the corner to Spates, who connected on the three-pointer, putting NU up 51-39 and silencing the crowd.
Spates was fouled again on a three, and he made all the shots, upping the lead to 15, 54-39. Egerson then hit a pair of free throws at 5:17 to make it 54-41. However, NU once again took away any momentum Delaware had when Janning found a wide-open Ojougboh, who sank a 16-footer at 4:54 as NU led 56-41. UD did not come any closer than 16 points the rest of the way.
The Huskies as a team shot 44.9 percent (22-for-49), 50 percent (4-for-8) from three-point range. The defense held UD to 30.9 percent (17-for-55) from the floor, 27.8 percent (5-for-18) from behind the arc. Turnovers were not much of a factor as both teams gave the ball away just 11 times. Northeastern also continued its strong work off the glass, outrebounding the Blue Hens 41-35.
Ledsome led Delaware with 10 points. The Huskies limited leading scorer Marc Edgerson to just six points.
Northeastern will play again in less than 48 hours as the Huskies meet the Hofstra Pride Saturday in Hempstead, N.Y., at 12 p.m. The game will be televised in the tri-state area on MSG+.
Official Basketball Box Score
Northeastern vs Delaware
1/15/09 7:00 p.m. at Bob Carpenter Center - Newark, Del.
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VISITORS: Northeastern 11-5, 6-0 CAA
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 1-3 1-2 6-7 0 4 4 4 9 0 0 0 3 22
32 Adako, Manny........ f 4-8 0-0 2-2 3 5 8 1 10 2 1 0 0 31
54 Ojougboh, Nkem...... c 4-9 0-0 4-5 2 7 9 3 12 2 1 1 1 30
03 Allen, Chaisson..... g 4-8 0-0 2-4 1 6 7 0 10 1 2 0 1 32
23 Janning, Matt....... g 5-15 2-5 0-0 1 6 7 1 12 4 4 0 1 35
01 Etherly, Erik....... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
02 Alvarez, Chris...... 1-3 0-0 0-2 1 3 4 2 2 0 0 0 2 16
11 Lima, Vinny......... 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 1 2 0 0 0 0 4
15 McDonald, Brian..... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 1
20 Smith, Matt......... 1-1 1-1 2-2 0 0 0 0 5 0 0 1 0 15
25 Bataille, Baptiste.. 0-0 0-0 3-4 0 0 0 0 3 1 1 0 0 8
31 Aragbaye, Allen..... 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 1 2 0 1 0 0 4
33 Felix, Ben.......... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 1
TEAM................ 1 1
Totals.............. 22-49 4-8 19-26 9 32 41 14 67 10 11 2 8 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 11-26 42.3% 2nd Half: 11-23 47.8% Game: 44.9% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 3-6 50.0% 2nd Half: 1-2 50.0% Game: 50.0% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 7-10 70.0% 2nd Half: 12-16 75.0% Game: 73.1% 2
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HOME TEAM: Delaware 7-11, 1-5 CAA
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
01 Egerson, Marc....... f 1-9 0-3 4-6 0 9 9 2 6 5 3 0 3 35
34 Ledsome, Jim........ f 5-8 0-0 0-5 3 6 9 3 10 0 0 0 0 25
03 Carter, Jawan....... g 1-6 1-3 1-2 0 3 3 4 4 2 2 0 0 28
05 Johnson, Brian...... g 3-6 2-2 0-0 0 0 0 5 8 2 2 0 3 29
11 Dawson, Alphonso.... g 3-12 1-6 0-0 0 1 1 2 7 0 1 0 1 29
12 Madarani, Samer..... 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 1
21 Boney, D.J.......... 1-5 1-2 2-2 2 0 2 3 5 1 0 0 0 21
24 Santiago, Edwin..... 1-5 0-2 0-0 2 0 2 1 2 0 2 0 2 12
31 Kelly, Brian........ 0-0 0-0 0-0 1 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
41 Pegg, Adam.......... 2-3 0-0 1-2 1 2 3 1 5 0 0 0 0 18
44 Young, Brian........ 0-0 0-0 0-2 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
TEAM................ 2 1 3 1
Totals.............. 17-55 5-18 8-19 12 23 35 21 47 10 11 0 10 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 9-23 39.1% 2nd Half: 8-32 25.0% Game: 30.9% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 3-10 30.0% 2nd Half: 2-8 25.0% Game: 27.8% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 4-8 50.0% 2nd Half: 4-11 36.4% Game: 42.1% 5
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Officials: Joe Lindsay (R), Jeff Nichols, Jerry Heater
Technical fouls: Northeastern-None. Delaware-None.
Attendance: 3174
Score by Periods 1st 2nd Total
Northeastern.................. 32 35 - 67
Delaware...................... 25 22 - 47
Johnson fouled out (2:28)...Delaware has lost 4 straight....Northeastern
has won 5 straight...Northeastern has defeated Delaware 8 straight times
in Newark.
Points in the paint-NU 26,DELAWARE 22. Points off turnovers-NU 14,DELAWARE 12.
2nd chance points-NU 12,DELAWARE 5. Fast break points-NU 9,DELAWARE 7.
Bench points-NU 14,DELAWARE 12. Score tied-0 times. Lead changed-0 times.
Last FG-NU 2nd-00:51, DELAWARE 2nd-01:15.
Largest lead-NU by 20 2nd-01:57, DELAWARE None.
