On national television as part of the ESPNU BracketBusters event, the Northeastern men's basketball team defeated Wright State 69-57 Saturday at the Nutter Center in Dayton, Ohio.
The Huskies shot 45.8 percent from the field and 50 percent from three-point range against the second-best defense in the nation in Wright State, which came into the game allowing an average of just 56.1 points a game. Eugene Spates led Northeastern with a career-high 22 points, and Chaisson Allen added 20 points, 13 in the second half.
The Northeastern defense proved to be better on this day, forcing 16 Wright State turnovers that turned into 26 Husky points. The Huskies held the Raiders to 41 percent (16-for-39) shooting on the day.
The win gives the Huskies a 3-1 mark in BracketBuster games, 1-0 on television. They improve to 17-10 overall and remain 11-5 in the CAA. Wright State drops to 16-12 and remains 10-6 in the Horizon League.
In the first half, the Huskies came out firing against the Raiders, who had allowed opponents to shoot an average of 37.7 percent in games this season. The two teams exchanged baskets early on. The Raiders were making threes while the Huskies were going inside. Todd Brown opened the scoring with a trey, followed by an open layup by Nkem Ojougboh. Will Graham put Wright State up 7-2, its largest lead of the game, with back-to-back layups.
N'Gai Evans and Cooper Land both hit threes before Manny Adako's 15-foot jumper at 9:33 tied the game at 15-15. The game would be tied once more at 19-19 on Cory Cooperwood's free throws. The Huskies grabbed the lead on Matt Janning's jumper at 6:13, but Land drained another three to put WSU back up 22-21 with 5:01 on the clock.
That was when the Huskies took over, ending the half on a 16-2 run. Spates started the run with a fadeaway jumper with a defender in his face. Allen followed with a steal and a fastbreak layup, drawing a foul as well. He made the free throw and put NU up four, 26-22.
Spates then sank a three-pointer off a pass from Vinny Lima at 3:03. On the next possession, Janning handed off to Allen, who connected on a mid-range jumper. After a Brown jumper ended Wright State's scoreless drought, Northeastern ended the half with free throws from Spates and Allen sandwiching a Janning three-pointer. The Huskies went into the break up 13, 37-24.
In the second half, Wright State got back into the game with a pair of three-pointers by Brown and a hook shot from Ronnie Thomas to get the Raiders within five, 37-32. After Ojougboh got a put-back layup, the Radiers scored the next four to get within one possession, 39-36.
The Huskies clamped down and re-opened a seven-point lead after a pair of Allen three-pointers. With 14:39 to play, the Huskies led 45-38.
After a Thomas long distance, two-point jumper got the Raiders within five again, Baptiste Bataille drove inside to the hoop and kicked back out to a wide-open Spates, who drilled home three to put the Huskies back up eight, 48-40.
Wright State got within four again when Evans knocked down a three at 6:37, but the Huskies did not allow them to get any closer, building the lead back up to nine on another Allen three at 4:44.
The finishing touch came when Spates was trapped by the Raiders in the backcourt, but he wiggled out and threw the ball to the frontcourt, where Janning picked it up, ran to the basket and dunked it home, giving NU a 63-54 lead with 1:29 to play.
Matched up with another tough defensive team, the Huskies were 22-for-48 from the field and 18-for-21 from the free throw line. They also had a season-low six turnovers to go with 15 assists.
Brown finished with 16 points for the Raiders, who did outrebound NU 30-23.
The Huskies will resume CAA play Wednesday night at Drexel at 7 p.m.
Official Basketball Box Score
Northeastern vs Wright State
02/21/09 11 a.m. at Ervin J. Nutter Center
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VISITORS: Northeastern 17-10
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 5-9 3-6 9-10 1 3 4 3 22 3 1 0 1 25
32 Adako, Manny........ f 5-9 0-0 0-0 1 2 3 4 10 1 2 1 0 25
54 Ojougboh, Nkem...... c 2-4 0-0 0-0 1 1 2 4 4 0 1 0 0 17
03 Allen, Chaisson..... g 7-10 3-4 3-4 0 3 3 1 20 1 0 0 3 39
23 Janning, Matt....... g 3-9 1-2 1-2 1 5 6 2 8 4 1 0 2 34
02 Alvarez, Chris...... 0-4 0-0 2-2 1 0 1 3 2 0 0 1 1 19
11 Lima, Vinny......... 0-1 0-1 0-0 0 1 1 1 0 1 0 0 1 10
20 Smith, Matt......... 0-1 0-1 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 7
25 Bataille, Baptiste.. 0-1 0-0 3-3 0 3 3 0 3 5 1 0 0 24
TEAM................
Totals.............. 22-48 7-14 18-21 5 18 23 18 69 15 6 2 8 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 12-22 54.5% 2nd Half: 10-26 38.5% Game: 45.8% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 3-7 42.9% 2nd Half: 4-7 57.1% Game: 50.0% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 10-13 76.9% 2nd Half: 8-8 100 % Game: 85.7% 1
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HOME TEAM: Wright State 16-12
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
05 COOPERWOOD, Cory.... f 0-5 0-0 6-6 4 6 10 0 6 3 2 0 1 28
30 GROTE, Scott........ f 0-2 0-1 2-2 0 2 2 3 2 1 5 0 0 26
40 THOMAS, Ronnie...... f 4-7 0-1 4-5 0 3 3 0 12 0 1 3 0 25
21 BROWN, Todd......... g 6-10 3-5 0-0 1 2 3 2 15 1 2 0 0 32
34 GRAHAM, Will........ g 2-4 0-1 2-4 0 3 3 4 6 3 1 0 0 33
03 TABLER, Troy........ 0-2 0-2 0-0 0 0 0 4 0 1 0 0 0 12
11 EVANS, N'Gai........ 2-4 2-2 0-0 0 3 3 2 6 1 2 0 0 19
12 BOAN, Michael....... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0+
14 LAND, Cooper........ 2-4 2-4 2-2 0 4 4 2 8 1 1 0 0 14
15 PRESSLEY, Kyle...... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0+
33 HORNE, Gavin........ 0-1 0-0 2-5 1 0 1 2 2 0 1 0 0 11
TEAM................ 1 1
Totals.............. 16-39 7-16 18-24 7 23 30 19 57 11 16 3 1 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 7-18 38.9% 2nd Half: 9-21 42.9% Game: 41.0% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 4-9 44.4% 2nd Half: 3-7 42.9% Game: 43.8% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 6-8 75.0% 2nd Half: 12-16 75.0% Game: 75.0% 4
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Officials: D.J. Carstensen, Jerry Heater and Ron Tyburski
Technical fouls: Northeastern-None. Wright State-None.
Attendance: 5301
Score by Periods 1st 2nd Total
Northeastern.................. 37 32 - 69
Wright State.................. 24 33 - 57
Points in the paint-NU 18,WSU 8. Points off turnovers-NU 26,WSU 10.
2nd chance points-NU 6,WSU 6. Fast break points-NU 4,WSU 0.
Bench points-NU 5,WSU 16. Score tied-4 times. Lead changed-9 times.
Last FG-NU 2nd-01:29, WSU 2nd-03:38.
Largest lead-NU by 13 1st-00:02, WSU by 5 1st-16:20.
