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Northeastern University Athletics

Northeastern Huskies

Men's Basketball

Huskies downed by Drexel, 62-58

Drexel overcame a 13-point, second-half deficit behind 15 second-half points from Scott Rodgers to beat the Northeastern University men's basketball team 62-58 Wednesday night at Matthews Arena.

Northeastern has dropped into a tie with VCU for first place in the CAA. However, the Huskies do hold the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Rams. NU is 16-8 overall, 11-3 in the CAA with four conference games remaining. Drexel improves to 13-10 overall, 9-5 in the CAA and is now in fourth place in the league.

After coming out of halftime with an eight-point lead, the Huskies went on a 8-3 run to take a 13-point advantage at 17:20. Matt Janning was the catalyst in that run, draining a pair of NBA-range three-pointers at 19:24 and 18:33. Manny Adako had a soft turnaround jumper that made it 31-18 Huskies.

However, the game changed from there as Drexel went on a 15-0 run and kept the Huskies scoreless for over six minutes. The Dragons were contesting every shot that Northeastern was taking. Meanwhile, Drexel was getting good looks at basket. Evan Neisler's layup off a nice pass from Tramayne Hawthorne at 11:39 gave the Dragons their first lead of the second half, 33-31.

The Huskies finally scored on Janning's free throws at 10:31 to tie the game again, but Rodgers immediately answered with a layup to put Drexel back up. The Huskies tied it again on free throws, but each time they did, the Dragons were there to reclaim the lead. Tied at 38-38, Rodgers threw up a wild jumper that went in to give the Dragons a two-point lead again. He then extended the lead with a short jumper in the paint.

The Huskies would tie it one more time as Baptiste Bataille drew a foul on Hawthorne on a three-point shot. Bataille calmly sank all three shots to tie the contest at 42-42. However, Bataille gave it right back when he fouled Jamie Harris on a three-point attempt. Harris made two of three as Drexel snatched back the lead, 44-42 with 4:03 to play.

That started a 9-1 run that seemingly ended Northeastern's hopes. The Huskies turned the ball over three times in three consecutive possessions, while Harris went on to slice through the Husky defense for an easy layup at 3:09. His jumper at 1:33 gave the Dragons a 51-43 advantage.

In the final two minutes, the two teams played the free throw game, fouling each other repeatedly. Drexel got its lead to 10 with 20 seconds left, but miraculously, the Huskies managed to whittle the deficit to four with seven seconds left as Bataille scored seven of his career-high 19 points in those final 20 seconds.

However, it was too little to late. With seven seconds left after a Bataille three, the Huskies needed to create a turnover, but Drexel got the ball into Rodgers hands. The Huskies fouled with four seconds left. Rodgers missed both free throws, but there was not enough time for Northeastern to get down the court.

Drexel shot 44.2 percent for the game, 59.1 percent in the second half, while the Huskies shot 38.5 percent. Neither team was particularly effective from the free throw line, the Dragons at 69.7 percent, the Huskies at 73.3 percent.

Northeastern will regroup and head to Fairfax, Va., to take on George Mason this Saturday at 12 p.m. The game will be televised on Comcast SportsNet.

Official Basketball Box Score
Drexel vs Northeastern
02/11/09 7 p.m. at Matthews Arena (Boston, MA)


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VISITORS: Drexel 13-10, 9-5 CAA
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
33 Neisler, Evan....... f 2-3 0-0 2-2 0 3 3 3 6 0 4 1 0 21
42 Tribbett, Kenny..... f 1-1 0-0 2-2 2 3 5 3 4 0 1 1 1 24
03 Rodgers, Scott...... g 6-13 1-3 4-8 1 5 6 4 17 2 2 1 0 39
11 Colds, Gerald....... g 3-10 0-3 0-1 0 0 0 0 6 0 1 0 1 18
23 Harris, Jamie....... g 3-4 0-0 6-7 0 3 3 5 12 1 1 0 1 37
00 Hawthorne, Tramayne. 0-1 0-1 3-5 0 2 2 4 3 3 1 0 1 26
05 Spencer, Leon....... 1-5 0-0 2-4 0 2 2 2 4 0 2 1 0 15
45 Givens, Samme....... 3-6 0-0 4-4 5 2 7 3 10 0 0 0 2 20
TEAM................ 1 1 2
Totals.............. 19-43 1-7 23-33 9 20 29 24 62 6 14 4 6 200

TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 6-21 28.6% 2nd Half: 13-22 59.1% Game: 44.2% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 0-5 0.0% 2nd Half: 1-2 50.0% Game: 14.3% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 3-4 75.0% 2nd Half: 20-29 69.0% Game: 69.7% 5,3


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HOME TEAM: Northeastern 16-8, 11-3 CAA
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
24 Spates, Eugene...... f 2-4 1-2 4-4 1 6 7 3 9 1 3 0 0 27
32 Adako, Manny........ f 2-7 0-0 1-2 1 1 2 1 5 2 4 0 0 28
54 Ojougboh, Nkem...... c 2-6 0-0 1-2 1 4 5 3 5 1 2 0 0 23
03 Allen, Chaisson..... g 0-3 0-1 2-2 0 3 3 3 2 2 1 0 1 30
23 Janning, Matt....... g 4-13 3-5 4-7 1 4 5 2 15 0 2 2 2 38
02 Alvarez, Chris...... 0-1 0-0 1-2 1 0 1 3 1 0 2 0 2 23
11 Lima, Vinny......... 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 2 2 1 1 0 0 10
20 Smith, Matt......... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
25 Bataille, Baptiste.. 4-4 2-2 9-11 0 1 1 4 19 0 1 0 0 19
31 Aragbaye, Allen..... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 0 1
TEAM................ 2 1 3 1
Totals.............. 15-39 6-10 22-30 7 20 27 23 58 7 17 2 5 200

TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 8-20 40.0% 2nd Half: 7-19 36.8% Game: 38.5% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 2-4 50.0% 2nd Half: 4-6 66.7% Game: 60.0% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 5-8 62.5% 2nd Half: 17-22 77.3% Game: 73.3% 2


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Officials: Pat Driscoll, Brent Hampton, Larry Scirotto
Technical fouls: Drexel-None. Northeastern-None.
Attendance: 2088
Score by Periods 1st 2nd Total
Drexel........................ 15 47 - 62
Northeastern.................. 23 35 - 58

Points in the paint-DREXEL 30,NU 16. Points off turnovers-DREXEL 12,NU 15.
2nd chance points-DREXEL 9,NU 9. Fast break points-DREXEL 6,NU 2.
Bench points-DREXEL 17,NU 22. Score tied-7 times. Lead changed-1 time.
Last FG-DREXEL 2nd-01:33, NU 2nd-00:07.
Largest lead-DREXEL by 11 2nd-00:27, NU by 13 2nd-17:20.
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