The Northeastern University men's basketball team took over sole possession of first place in the CAA with a 68-63 win over VCU Tuesday night in front of a wild Siegel Center crowd in Richmond, Va.
The Huskies, who tied a season high with nine three-pointers, survived a late VCU rally and a 30-point effort from All-CAA performer Eric Maynor to improve to 14-6 overall, 9-1 in the conference. This was the only meeting between the two teams this season, and Northeastern now holds the head-to-head tiebreaker. VCU falls to 15-6 overall, 8-2 in the CAA.
Northeastern has now won 11 of its last 13 games and is continuing its best conference start in 22 years. The Huskies handed VCU its first loss at home this season.
The first half was a slugfest between the two teams with both the Huskies and Rams enjoying success. After the teams traded leads early on, the Huskies went on a 12-0 run to open up an 11-point advantage. Early VCU fouls contributed to the run as Alvarez and Ojougboh hit a pair of free throws to start the streak. Bataille then made a good steal off of Nixon and fed the ball to Smith, who buried a three-pointer to make it 15-9 NU.
Janning finished the run with free throws and a three-pointer, giving the Huskies the 20-9 advantage with 9:18 left. Maynor ended the run with a running jumper at 8:51, but Northeastern then went on a 10-2 run with three three-pointers to build a 17-point lead. Janning followed the Maynor basket with another three-pointer off a screen. Rozzell dropped a bucket, but the Huskies answered with a three from Smith off a pass from Allen. After a VCU miss, Spates then connected from downtown with a hand in his face as the Huskies led 29-13 with 6:27 left.
After one Alvarez free throw gave the Huskies their largest lead of the first half, 17 points, at 30-13, the Rams, aided by a raucous Siegel Center crowd, woke up with a 17-4 run to go into halftime down just four. Rozzell started the run with a trey. After an offensive foul on Bataille, Sanders then dunked home the ball to make it 30-18, Northeastern, at 4:06
Less than a minute later, Rozzell buried another three-pointer, this time off a swing pass from Rodriguez, to make it 32-23 at 3:22. After a Husky turnover, Maynor went in for a layup that rimmed out, but Sanders was there for the tip-in. VCU was down seven, 32-25.
The half ended with Rozell hitting a jumper for VCU at 2:04, Allen making a bucket off a steal from Janning for the Huskies at 1:03, and then Maynor sinking a three from the corner with 11 seconds left. The score was 34-30 Northeastern at the break.
In the second half, the Huskies came out firing on a 15-3 run to reclaim a 16-point advantage. To open play, Janning missed a layup, but Allen was right there to grab the offensive board. The ball was passed around to Spates, who nailed another three-pointer, putting NU up seven, 37-30.
Following a VCU turnover, Adako then made a hook shot at 17:49 and, after a Maynor jumper, followed with a jumper at 17:13. Adako scored again at 16:56 when Janning drove to the basket and dumped it off to him for the easy layup. Spates followed with his third trey of the night at 16:16 as the Huskies led 46-32.
Allen made it 49-33 at 15:38 with a three-pointer of his own, giving NU its largest lead of the second half. That was when VCU woke up with a pair of three-pointers from Rozzell, who made four total on the night. His triple at 11:58 brought the deficit back into single digits, 50-41.
Ojougboh gave the Huskies an 11-point lead at 9:38 with a dunk off a nice feed from Alvarez, but Maynor made it a game once again by scoring 14 of the Rams' next 18 points. He picked up a three-point play at 7:40, driving to the lane and drawing a foul. He made a jumper at 6:34 to cut the NU lead to six, 52-46.
After Adako had another nice layup off a pass from Janning, Spates found the basket again with his fourth three-pointer of the night, extending the Husky lead back to 11, 57-46, with 5:52 to play.
VCU was down eight, 58-50, when Maynor continued his assault on Northeastern. He hit a pair of free throws and then hit another layup and drew a foul with 2:09 to play. After the layup, a scrum evolved and offsetting technical fouls were hit on Burgess and Adako. Maynor made his free throw and the Northeastern lead was down to four, 58-54.
Towards the end, the game became a battle of free throws. The teams went back and forth between a one-possession and a two-posssesion game. The key moment came with 40 seconds left when Maynor missed a three with VCU down four points. Sanders grabbed the offensive board, but Nixon's putback was blocked by Ojougboh back out towards midcourt. Rozzell then missed a three after Alvarez got a piece of the ball and sent it out of bounds.
The Rams did recover the ball and Nixon made a pair of free throws after drawing a foul, making it 63-61 Northeastern. The Rams fouled and Alvarez made one of two free throws for a three-point lead. Maynor went for the tie, but his three-pointer with 15 seconds left was off the mark. Ojougboh grabbed the rebound, got fouled and hit his free throws to ice it.
The Huskies, who shot 47.5 percent from the field and 9-for-15 from three-point range, had three players score in double digits. Adako and Spates each had 12 and Janning added 11.
Maynor was 10-for-26 from the field for VCU and 8-for-8 from the line to secure his 30 points. Rozzell finished with 16.
Both teams were plagued by fouls, VCU committing 27 and having three players foul out and the Huskies committing 21.
Northeastern returns home to face Delaware this Saturday at Matthews Arena at 1 p.m.
Official Basketball Box Score
Northeastern vs VCU
1/27/09 9 p.m. at Richmond, Va. (Siegel Center)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
VISITORS: Northeastern 14-6 (9-1 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 4-10 4-7 0-0 1 2 3 1 12 0 1 0 0 23
32 Adako, Manny........ f 6-9 0-0 0-1 2 0 2 4 12 0 0 1 0 26
54 Ojougboh, Nkem...... c 1-3 0-0 4-5 0 3 3 3 6 2 2 1 0 25
03 Allen, Chaisson..... g 2-5 1-2 4-6 1 3 4 4 9 2 3 0 0 33
23 Janning, Matt....... g 3-8 2-3 3-4 0 7 7 4 11 4 2 0 2 38
02 Alvarez, Chris...... 0-0 0-0 4-6 5 3 8 4 4 2 6 1 0 26
20 Smith, Matt......... 3-3 2-2 0-0 1 1 2 0 8 1 1 0 0 16
25 Bataille, Baptiste.. 0-2 0-1 6-6 0 0 0 1 6 1 2 0 1 13
TEAM................ 1 3 4 2
Totals.............. 19-40 9-15 21-28 11 22 33 21 68 12 19 3 3 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 10-21 47.6% 2nd Half: 9-19 47.4% Game: 47.5% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 5-9 55.6% 2nd Half: 4-6 66.7% Game: 60.0% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 9-10 90.0% 2nd Half: 12-18 66.7% Game: 75.0% 2
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
HOME TEAM: VCU 15-6 (8-2 CAA)
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
01 Sanders, Larry...... f 4-7 0-0 0-1 6 5 11 5 8 0 3 3 1 27
11 Pishchalnikov, K.... f 1-5 0-0 0-0 3 1 4 5 2 2 2 1 0 29
03 Maynor, Eric........ g 10-26 2-7 8-8 2 0 2 2 30 3 3 0 1 38
12 Rodriguez, Joey..... g 1-5 0-3 0-0 1 3 4 2 2 2 3 0 0 30
20 Burgess, Bradford... g 1-2 0-0 1-2 1 0 1 5 3 1 1 0 1 25
04 Saintil, Terrance... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 0 6
05 Rozzell, Brandon.... 6-12 4-7 0-0 0 5 5 1 16 0 0 0 2 32
50 Nixon, Ed........... 0-3 0-0 2-2 0 1 1 4 2 0 1 0 0 13
TEAM................ 3 3
Totals.............. 23-60 6-17 11-13 16 15 31 27 63 8 13 4 5 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 12-28 42.9% 2nd Half: 11-32 34.4% Game: 38.3% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 4-7 57.1% 2nd Half: 2-10 20.0% Game: 35.3% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 2-2 100 % 2nd Half: 9-11 81.8% Game: 84.6% 1
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Officials: Karl Hess, Michael Stephens, Bill Covington Jr.
Technical fouls: Northeastern-Adako, Manny. VCU-Burgess, Bradford.
Attendance: 6841
Score by Periods 1st 2nd Total
Northeastern.................. 34 34 - 68
VCU........................... 30 33 - 63
Points in the paint-NU 16,VCU 26. Points off turnovers-NU 12,VCU 26.
2nd chance points-NU 15,VCU 13. Fast break points-NU 4,VCU 2.
Bench points-NU 18,VCU 18. Score tied-3 times. Lead changed-5 times.
Last FG-NU 2nd-05:52, VCU 2nd-00:04.
Largest lead-NU by 17 1st-04:35, VCU by 3 1st-16:24.
