Box score

Evan Neisler scored Drexel's last four points, and Northeastern missed its final two shots as the Dragons came away with a 49-47 victory in a defensive slugfest at the Daskalakis Athletic Center in Philadelphia.

It was another close contest for Northeastern, which has played six games and all six have been decided by six points or less.

Matt Janning led the Huskies with 17 points. He had the ball in his hands for the final shot with 13 seconds to play, but a strong Drexel defense forced him to pass it off to Nkem Ojougboh, who missed a 15-footer. Brian McDonald grabbed the offensive board for the Huskies and handed it to Janning, who missed a runner in the lane as the buzzer went off.

The game came down to a lack of three-point shooting and missed foul shots. Drexel was only 1-for-8 from long range; NU only took three shots even though it made two of them. The Huskies had trouble at the charity stripe, where they were 11-for-17.

Samme Givens led Drexel with 16 points. Jamie Harris chipped in 12.

As usual with Northeastern-Drexel contests, the first half was a defensive grinder. The Huskies started out with a 6-0 lead, but went into a dry spell as they did not score between 17:42 and 11:09.

Drexel rode Givens, who came off the bench to pour in 10 first-half points. His three-point play at 7:52 gave the Dragons their largest first-half lead, 17-12.

NU bounced back as Ojougboh, who had 10 points in the half, knocked down a pair of jumpers on back-to-back possessions. Turnovers plagued the Dragons. Harris lost the ball at 5:30, and Chaisson Allen came down the other end and nailed a basket at 5:21 to put the Huskies back up 18-17. Drexel had nine first-half giveaways.

After Givens made another basket, Janning pumped in a jumper and then Baptiste Bataille drained a long three-pointer on a kick-out pass from Ojougboh giving the Huskies a 23-19 advantage with 4:23 to play.

However, Drexel answered the call with six of the half's last eight points, including free throws from Jamie Harris with seven seconds left to tie the game at 25-25.

The second half belonged to the Dragons. After Janning put the Huskies up with a layup on the first possession, Drexel went on a 6-0 run on two baskets by Harris and one by Givens.

Northeastern kept the game within one or two possessions the entire contest, but every time the Huskies struck, Drexel answered. At 4:42, Bataille dropped a big jumper with a hand in his face to cut the deficit to one, 41-40, but Givens came right back with a layup at 4:26 to go back up by three.

With 1:42 to go, Janning drilled home a three-pointer while on the move to make it 47-45 in favor of Drexel. The Huskies played good defense and forced a missed shot by Harris, but Allen was called for a loose ball foul on Neisler, who made both his free throws to make it 49-45. Janning was fouled by Harris and made both his free throws and then Harris turned the ball over, setting the stage for Northeastern's try for the tie.

The game mirrored Northeastern's thrilling 47-46 victory at the DAC last season when Bataille made the game-winning shot with 1.3 seconds left. This time, the Huskies' bid for victory fell short.

In addition to Janning's 17, Ojougboh had 10 points, six rebounds and two blocks.

Northeastern will return to non-conference play next Thursday at Rhode Island at 7 p.m. The game will be televised in Rhode Island on COX Sports.