The Northeastern men's basketball team's defense put up another stellar effort, forcing 25 Hofstra turnovers and holding the Pride to 38 percent shooting as the Huskies cruised to a 73-50 win Monday night at Matthews Arena.
Northeastern, which has won five of its last six games, improves to 8-5 overall and 3-0 in the CAA for the first time since joining the conference in 2005. The Huskies are also three games over .500 for the first time under head coach
Bill Coen. Northeastern is one of just two teams in the CAA that are still undefeated.
The Huskies never trailed as they got off to a quick start, capitalizing on seven Hofstra turnovers in the first 4:09 of the game. NU had an 11-0 run to begin the game, led by three baskets from Manny Adako.
Eugene Spates also helped give the Huskies a big cushion with a trio of three-pointers in the first half.
Meanwhile, Hofstra was plagued by turnovers and fouls in the first half. The Pride turned the ball over 17 times that led to 16 NU points and committed 14 fouls that led to 17 NU free throw attempts. The Huskies had their largest lead of the first half, 17 points, after an Nkem Ojougboh free throw at 4:14.
Northeastern went into the half with a 33-18 lead with Adako scoring 12 of the team's 33 points.
In the second half, it was more of the same as the Huskies opened up a 27-point lead, 51-24, with an 18-4 run to start the half, which was punctuated by Chaisson Allen stripping Greg Johnson of the ball and going coast-to-coast for a fastbreak layup. After Hofstra's Dane Johnson dunked the ball home, Nkem Ojougboh then wowed the crowd with an alley oop dunk off a pass from Matt Janning.
Hofstra never got closer than 19 points.
All in all, the Northeastern defense continued to shine, holding its opponent to 50 points or less for fourth time this season, three out of the last four games. The 25 turnovers forced are the most since Cal State Northridge had 29 against NU during the 2005-06 season. The Huskies also cleaned up nicely on the glass, outrebounding the Pride 39-32.
Individually, the Huskies were led by Adako, who had 16 points on 7-of-12 shooting. Ojougboh had 13 points and eight rebounds, Janning had 10 points, three assists and three steals and Allen Aragbaye had 11 points off the bench. Chaisson Allen had a well-rounded game with eight points, eight rebounds, six steals and five assists.
All 13 Huskies played at least three minutes in the game.
Playing their third game in five days, the Huskies will head to Atlanta to play the Georgia State Panthers Wednesday night at the Georgia State Sports Arena at 7 p.m. The game will air live on Comcast Charter Sports Southeast and air on tape delay on Comcast SportsNet New England at 11 p.m.
Official Basketball Box Score
Hofstra vs Northeastern
01/05/09 7 p.m. at Matthews Arena (Boston, MA)
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VISITORS: Hofstra 9-5, 1-2 CAA
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
32 Washington, Greg.... f 1-3 0-0 4-6 1 4 5 4 6 2 3 3 1 23
50 Johnson, Dane....... f 3-3 0-0 0-0 1 7 8 2 6 0 2 0 1 19
20 Johnson, Greg....... g 3-7 0-0 0-0 0 3 3 5 6 4 5 0 0 37
22 Jenkins, Charles.... g 1-9 0-0 1-2 1 2 3 2 3 1 6 0 2 28
23 Vines, Cornelius.... g 2-6 1-4 3-4 0 1 1 3 8 0 2 0 3 25
01 Lester, Nathaniel... 1-1 1-1 1-2 0 0 0 5 4 0 1 0 0 12
02 Szabo, Miklos....... 1-3 0-2 0-0 1 2 3 2 2 0 2 0 0 14
03 Sestokas, Zygis..... 1-4 1-3 0-0 0 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 0 10
05 Dennison, Tony...... 2-4 0-0 3-4 0 0 0 0 7 0 3 0 0 7
12 Vallins, David...... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
15 Urbutis, Arminas.... 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 8
21 Townes, Darren...... 1-1 0-0 3-4 1 4 5 3 5 0 1 1 2 16
TEAM................ 2 1 3
Totals.............. 16-42 3-10 15-22 7 25 32 26 50 7 25 4 9 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 7-20 35.0% 2nd Half: 9-22 40.9% Game: 38.1% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 1-5 20.0% 2nd Half: 2-5 40.0% Game: 30.0% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 3-6 50.0% 2nd Half: 12-16 75.0% Game: 68.2% 3
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HOME TEAM: Northeastern 8-5, 3-0 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 3-5 3-4 0-0 0 0 0 4 9 0 0 0 1 20
32 Adako, Manny........ f 7-12 0-0 2-2 2 1 3 1 16 0 2 0 0 26
54 Ojougboh, Nkem...... c 5-7 0-0 3-5 5 3 8 3 13 2 3 2 1 27
03 Allen, Chaisson..... g 2-11 0-1 4-4 2 6 8 1 8 5 0 0 6 29
23 Janning, Matt....... g 4-12 0-4 2-4 1 0 1 1 10 3 2 0 3 26
01 Etherly, Erik....... 0-0 0-0 0-2 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 5
02 Alvarez, Chris...... 0-2 0-0 1-4 4 3 7 2 1 0 2 0 0 18
11 Lima, Vinny......... 0-2 0-1 0-2 2 4 6 1 0 0 2 0 1 12
15 McDonald, Brian..... 0-1 0-1 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 3
20 Smith, Matt......... 0-1 0-1 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 7
25 Bataille, Baptiste.. 1-2 0-1 3-4 0 0 0 4 5 0 2 0 0 8
31 Aragbaye, Allen..... 2-2 2-2 5-6 0 2 2 1 11 0 1 0 1 14
33 Felix, Ben.......... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 1 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 5
TEAM................ 2 2
Totals.............. 24-57 5-15 20-33 16 23 39 20 73 12 14 2 13 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 10-26 38.5% 2nd Half: 14-31 45.2% Game: 42.1% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 3-8 37.5% 2nd Half: 2-7 28.6% Game: 33.3% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 10-17 58.8% 2nd Half: 10-16 62.5% Game: 60.6% 5
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Officials: Brian Dorsey, Joe Demayo, D.J. Carstensen
Technical fouls: Hofstra-None. Northeastern-None.
Attendance: 1799
Score by Periods 1st 2nd Total
Hofstra....................... 18 32 - 50
Northeastern.................. 33 40 - 73
Points in the paint-HOFSTRA 18,NU 24. Points off turnovers-HOFSTRA 9,NU 29.
2nd chance points-HOFSTRA 9,NU 11. Fast break points-HOFSTRA 0,NU 4.
Bench points-HOFSTRA 21,NU 17. Score tied-0 times. Lead changed-0 times.
Last FG-HOFSTRA 2nd-00:40, NU 2nd-02:30.
Largest lead-HOFSTRA None, NU by 27 2nd-14:05.
