The Northeastern men's basketball team closed out the regular season with a 57-54 overtime loss to Old Dominion Saturday night at Matthews Arena.
The loss gives the Huskies an 18-11 overall and 12-6 CAA record going into the CAA Tournament next week. The Huskies will play as the No. 3 seed and will face the winner of No. 6 Drexel vs. No. 11 Towson next Saturday night at the Richmond Coliseum in Richmond, Va. Old Dominion improves to 20-8, 12-6 in the CAA. The Monarchs will be the No. 4 seed and face either No. 5 Hofstra or No. 12 UNC Wilmington at 2:30 p.m. Saturday.
With 23 seconds to go in regulation and the game tied at 47-47, Matt Janning knocked down a 25-foot three-pointer to give the Huskies a three-point edge. However, Jonathan Adams drained a three with 11 seconds left to tie the game. The Huskies had one shot to win, but an inbounds play to Nkem Ojougboh failed.
In overtime, Ojougboh got the Huskies on the board with a basket at 4:40. After two scoreless possessions by each team, the Monarchs then tied it on Gerald Lee's jumper at 2:58. Janning was fouled by Lee on the next possession, but he missed the front end of the 1-and-1. Chris Alvarez was there to grab the offensive rebound, but Janning then committed a turnover.
At 1:25, Frank Hassell put the ODU on top with a layup inside, but the Huskies immediately tied the game on Ojougboh soft jumper in the lane. With under a minute left, Chaisson Allen fouled Adams on a shot. He went to the line and sank both free throws to go up 56-54. Baptiste Bataille then missed the tying layup after driving along the baseline.
After Ojougboh fouled Lee, Lee made one of two free throws to give Northeastern one last chance to tie. With 10 seconds left, Janning missed a contested three. Bataille grabbed the rebound, but he had trouble getting around his defenders. With three seconds left, he passed to Eugene Spates, who shuffled his feet and was called for a travel. ODU then ran out the clock.
Lee finished with 17 points to lead the Monarchs, who shot 48.9 percent for the game. The Huskies were led by Ojougboh and his 16 points on 8-of-9 shooting. He also had a team-high seven boards and three blocks. NU struggled with shooting, going 22-for-55 (40 percent) from the floor, 6-for-24 (25 percent) from behind the arc.
In the first half, both teams shot well, and the Monarchs went into the halftime break with a 28-25 lead after getting a good contribution from Hassell, who was 4-for-6 with eight points. The Huskies committed 10 turnovers in the first half, but buckled down to make just three in the second half.
In the second half, the Monarchs upped the lead to six, 40-34, after hitting six of their first seven shots coming out of the locker room. Lee had four of those buckets, including three in a row at 17:09, 16:09 and 15:13.
ODU's second-half lead was as large as seven, but the Huskies battled back to tie the game at 43-43 with 6:50 on the clock after an Alvarez layup off a nice running feed from Bataille. The two teams missed a bunch of shots towards the end, setting the scene for Janning's three and Adams' matching triple.
Neither team got to the foul line much. Old Dominion was 8-for-12, and Northeastern was 4-for-7, all by Janning.
In a pregame ceremony, the Huskies honored three seniors, Chris Alvarez, Matt Smith and Eugene Spates, who played their last game at Matthews Arena.
The Huskies will next play in the CAA Tournament against either Drexel or Towson next Saturday, March 7, at the Richmond Coliseum in Richmond, Va., at 8:30 p.m. The game will be televised on Comcast SportsNet.
Official Basketball Box Score
Old Dominion vs Northeastern
02/28/09 6 p.m. at Matthews Arena (Boston, MA)
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VISITORS: Old Dominion 20-8, 12-6 CAA
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
21 Hassell, Frank...... f 5-8 0-0 0-0 2 5 7 2 10 0 1 0 1 34
33 Carter, Keyon....... f 1-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 2 0 1 0 1 11
35 Finney, Ben......... f 3-7 1-4 1-2 1 4 5 2 8 1 2 0 4 32
03 James, Darius....... g 2-8 1-3 2-2 0 2 2 2 7 5 3 0 1 34
23 Neely, Marsharee.... g 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1 1 15
12 Lee, Gerald......... 7-11 0-0 3-4 2 2 4 4 17 1 4 1 0 35
20 Cooper, Chris....... 2-3 0-0 0-0 0 3 3 2 4 0 1 0 0 7
22 De Lancey, Marquel.. 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 7
24 Bazemore, Kent...... 0-4 0-0 0-2 0 1 1 2 0 1 1 0 0 16
34 Adams, Jonathan..... 3-4 1-1 2-2 0 3 3 0 9 0 1 0 1 34
Team................ 3 3
Totals.............. 23-47 3-8 8-12 8 20 28 15 57 8 14 2 9 225
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 12-23 52.2% 2nd Half: 9-20 45.0% OT: 2-4 50.0% Game: 48.9% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 1-4 25.0% 2nd Half: 2-4 50.0% OT: 0-0 0.0% Game: 37.5% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 3-4 75.0% 2nd Half: 2-4 50.0% OT: 3-4 75.0% Game: 66.7% 2
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HOME TEAM: Northeastern 18-11, 12-6 CAA
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
02 Alvarez, Chris...... f 3-4 0-1 0-0 1 2 3 3 6 0 0 0 1 24
20 Smith, Matt......... f 2-5 2-5 0-0 0 1 1 0 6 0 1 0 1 16
24 Spates, Eugene...... f 1-3 1-2 0-0 1 4 5 2 3 1 3 0 0 26
03 Allen, Chaisson..... g 3-11 2-7 0-0 1 4 5 3 8 5 1 0 0 41
23 Janning, Matt....... g 3-11 1-5 4-7 3 2 5 3 11 2 4 0 2 38
11 Lima, Vinny......... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 3
25 Bataille, Baptiste.. 1-6 0-4 0-0 2 2 4 0 2 3 1 0 1 25
32 Adako, Manny........ 1-6 0-0 0-0 2 0 2 2 2 0 2 0 0 19
54 Ojougboh, Nkem...... 8-9 0-0 0-0 4 3 7 2 16 1 1 3 0 33
TEAM................
Totals.............. 22-55 6-24 4-7 14 18 32 15 54 12 13 4 5 225
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 11-23 47.8% 2nd Half: 9-26 34.6% OT: 2-6 33.3% Game: 40.0% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 3-9 33.3% 2nd Half: 3-13 23.1% OT: 0-2 0.0% Game: 25.0% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 0-0 0.0% 2nd Half: 4-6 66.7% OT: 0-1 0.0% Game: 57.1% 2
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Officials: Ray Perone, William Humes, Bill Covington Jr.
Technical fouls: Old Dominion-None. Northeastern-None.
Attendance: 2157
Score by Periods 1st 2nd OT Total
Old Dominion.................. 28 22 7 - 57
Northeastern.................. 25 25 4 - 54
Points in the paint-ODU 28,NU 32. Points off turnovers-ODU 11,NU 8.
2nd chance points-ODU 8,NU 14. Fast break points-ODU 2,NU 0.
Bench points-ODU 30,NU 20. Score tied-13 times. Lead changed-12 times.
Last FG-ODU OT-01:25, NU OT-01:07.
Largest lead-ODU by 7 2nd-09:56, NU by 4 1st-14:34.
