The No. 3 seed Northeastern University men's basketball team fell to No. 11 seed Towson 58-54 in the quarterfinals of the CAA Tournament Saturday night at the Richmond Coliseum in Richmond, Va.
The Tigers improve to 12-21 on the season and will face No. 2 seed George Mason in the semifinals Sunday at 5:30 p.m. The Huskies fall to 18-12.
Free throws hurt the Huskies' chances as they went just 12-for-24 from the line in the game. Down by three, 56-53, with five seconds left, Baptiste Bataille was fouled by Junior Hairston going up for a three-pointer. Bataille went to the line and missed the first shot. He made the second and intentionally missed the third, but Towson's Robert Nwankwo came up with the rebound. He calmly sank both free throws to ice the game.
After falling behind the Huskies in the middle of the second half, Towson made a comeback behind three-pointers from Hairston and Josh Thornton. Thornton's trey at 5:49 put Towson back up 50-48 after being behind by five, 41-36, at the 10:47 mark.
The Huskies tied it at 4:45 on Nkem Ojougboh's layup, but Towson scored the next six points over the course of four minutes. Nwankwo had a dunk at 2:26 and then Hairston followed with a dunk off a pass from Troy Franklin at 1:42. Brian Morris' free throws with 36 seconds left put the Tigers up 36-30. During Towson's 6-0 run, the Huskies were 0-for-4 from the field and 0-for-2 from the free throw line.
Chaisson Allen did make it interesting by nailing a three with 20 seconds left to get Northeastern within three, 56-53. After NU fouled, Franklin missed the front end of a 1-and-1 to give the Huskies a chance. That was when Bataille drew the foul and missed his shot.
The loss overshadowed a tremendous performance from Manny Adako, who scored 23 points on 10-of-14 shooting. He chipped in seven boards as he continued to dominate the Tigers. Over his last three games against Towson, Adako is averaging 25 points.
The first half also proved to be troublesome for the Huskies, who were not able to get into a shooting rhythm. Adako got the team off on the right foot with a pair of pretty hook shots, putting NU up 6-2, but the Tigers went on a 12-2 run that included three-pointers from Morris and Hairston. Towson went up 14-8 and then held a 20-15 lead.
The Huskies battled back as Towson went through almost a nine-minute stretch without a field goal. Matt Janning picked up his first basket on a mid-range jumper at 7:33. Allen followed with a jumper at the free throw line to pull the Huskies to within one, 20-19. Adako's free throws at 4:51 allowed NU to reclaim the lead, 21-20.
Towson got back into the scoring column with Tony Durant's layup at 4:29. The teams traded jumpers before Towson scored eight of the half's last nine points, including layups from Calvin Lee, Franklin and Durant. Towson went into the break leading 32-25 and holding the Huskies to 33.3 percent shooting.
Northeastern will await to see if it is invited to a postseason tournament. The Huskies went 12-6 in the CAA, 18-12 overall with non-conference wins at Providence and Indiana. The Huskies were also the first CAA team in six years to win at Old Dominion and at VCU in the same season. Under third-year head coach
Bill Coen, the Huskies saw a four-win improvement and matched their all-time high in CAA victories.
Official Basketball Box Score
Towson vs Northeastern
3/7/09 8:32 p.m. at Richmond, Va. (Richmond Coliseum)
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VISITORS: Towson 12-21
TOT-FG 3-PT REBOUNDS
## Player Name FG-FGA FG-FGA FT-FTA OF DE TOT PF TP A TO BLK S MIN
22 Smith, Jarrel....... f 0-2 0-0 2-3 0 3 3 3 2 0 1 0 0 12
24 Hairston, Junior.... f 6-12 2-4 0-0 1 2 3 5 14 1 2 1 1 36
25 Nwankwo, Robert..... f 2-2 0-0 2-4 2 4 6 2 6 0 2 0 0 15
20 Morris, Brian....... g 1-2 1-2 4-4 0 1 1 3 7 2 4 0 0 31
32 Franklin, Troy...... g 5-10 0-3 3-4 0 2 2 3 13 4 2 0 3 35
03 Crossin, Tim........ 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
04 Coleman, Rocky...... 0-1 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 2 0 0 3 0 0 16
23 Thornton, Josh...... 2-4 1-2 2-3 0 1 1 0 7 0 1 0 0 25
33 Lee, Calvin......... 2-4 0-1 0-0 2 2 4 0 4 0 0 0 0 15
35 Durant, Tony........ 2-4 0-0 1-1 0 3 3 2 5 1 1 0 1 14
TEAM................ 3 3
Totals.............. 20-41 4-12 14-19 5 21 26 20 58 8 16 1 5 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 11-21 52.4% 2nd Half: 9-20 45.0% Game: 48.8% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 2-6 33.3% 2nd Half: 2-6 33.3% Game: 33.3% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 8-10 80.0% 2nd Half: 6-9 66.7% Game: 73.7% 2
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HOME TEAM: Northeastern 18-12
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 2-6 1-4 2-5 1 3 4 0 7 0 1 0 0 24
32 Adako, Manny........ f 10-14 0-0 3-4 2 5 7 2 23 0 1 0 1 37
54 Ojougboh, Nkem...... c 3-4 0-0 0-2 0 2 2 4 6 0 1 0 1 30
03 Allen, Chaisson..... g 2-12 1-5 2-2 4 6 10 3 7 1 2 0 2 39
23 Janning, Matt....... g 3-13 0-4 2-4 1 1 2 2 8 2 3 0 2 34
01 Etherly, Erik....... 0-0 0-0 0-2 1 1 2 0 0 0 0 0 1 6
02 Alvarez, Chris...... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 3 0 1 2 0 1 10
11 Lima, Vinny......... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1
20 Smith, Matt......... 0-0 0-0 0-0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 5
25 Bataille, Baptiste.. 0-0 0-0 3-5 0 0 0 2 3 2 2 0 1 12
31 Aragbaye, Allen..... 0-1 0-0 0-0 1 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 2
TEAM................ 5 1 6
Totals.............. 20-50 2-13 12-24 15 19 34 17 54 6 12 0 9 200
TOTAL FG% 1st Half: 8-24 33.3% 2nd Half: 12-26 46.2% Game: 40.0% DEADB
3-Pt. FG% 1st Half: 0-5 0.0% 2nd Half: 2-8 25.0% Game: 15.4% REBS
F Throw % 1st Half: 9-15 60.0% 2nd Half: 3-9 33.3% Game: 50.0% 6
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Officials: Bernard Clinton, Tim Kelly, Bob Testa
Technical fouls: Towson-None. Northeastern-None.
Attendance: 5232
Score by Periods 1st 2nd Total
Towson........................ 32 26 - 58
Northeastern.................. 25 29 - 54
Towson advances to face GMU in semifinal action Sunday at 5:30 pm.
Points in the paint-TOWSON 22,NU 24. Points off turnovers-TOWSON 13,NU 24.
2nd chance points-TOWSON 6,NU 9. Fast break points-TOWSON 0,NU 2.
Bench points-TOWSON 16,NU 3. Score tied-5 times. Lead changed-5 times.
Last FG-TOWSON 2nd-01:42, NU 2nd-00:20.
Largest lead-TOWSON by 7 1st-00:10, NU by 5 2nd-14:03.
