Box score

Northeastern survived a late Delaware rally with clutch shooting and defense as the Huskies won their eight straight game by beating the Blue Hens 59-55 Wednesday at Matthews Arena.

The win improves NU's record to 10-7, 5-1 in the CAA, as the Huskies remain in a tie for first place in the conference. The eight-game winning streak is the program's longest since the 2004-05 season and is tied for the sixth longest run in program history.

After the Huskies had led the entire game, Delaware (5-12, 1-5 CAA) chipped away at NU's lead, which had been nine points, 48-39, at the 13:24 mark of the second half. With 90 seconds remaining in the game, Baptiste Bataille drew a foul after grabbing an offensive rebound. He missed the first free throw, but made the second, making it 55-52 Huskies.

Delaware's Jawan Carter then took advantage of the situation and got a screen to give him enough space to knock down a three to tie the game at 55-55 with 1:17 remaining.

The Huskies regrouped and Bataille drove towards the basket into the paint, but then kicked out to Nkem Ojougboh, who had a wide open look at the basket from the left elbow and calmly sank the shot to put the Huskies back on top, 57-55, with 1:01 on the clock.

Delaware made a run at the tie, but Alwayne Bigby committed a pair of fouls, giving the Blue Hens a fresh 35 second shot clock with 36 seconds left on the game clock. UD then put the ball in Carter's hands. He was defended well by Bigby, but he tried to go to the hole and instead of trying a shot, he tried to dish off to Adam Pegg, but Janning snuffed out the pass and stole it away with four seconds left. Carter then fouled Janning, who made both free throws to ice the contest.

"I thought tonight's ballgame was appropriate the way it ended," said Huskies head coach Bill Coen. "It seems like we couldn't make a shot all night. We had some great looks at the basket and really couldn't come up with a shot. But fortunately down the stretch we were able to find a way to get the ball in the hole and make a huge stop at the end of the game."

Northeastern shot a commendable 43.8 percent from the field, but was 0-for-10 from three-point range, just the second time since 1996 that the team hasn't connected from downtown. Despite the three-point misses, the Huskies were 21-for-38 (55.3 percent) on all other shots from the field and 17-for-20 (85 percent) from the free throw line.

Ojougboh and Janning both led the Huskies with 15 points. Ojougboh had seven rebounds and three blocks as well. Carter led the Blue Hens with 19 points on 7-of-15 shooting. Delaware shot 40.4 percent for the game, and made 89 percent of its free throws, but only had nine attempts from the line.

The first half had seen Northeastern lead the entire away, including an 11-point advantage, 21-10, at the 10:39 mark after a Janning jumper. However, Delaware answered with a 15-6 run to cut its deficit to two, 27-25, with 4:51 remaining. The Huskies ended up leading at the half by six, 35-29.

NU led by as much as nine in the second half, taking a 48-39 lead on a Manny Adako dunk off a bounce pass from Chaisson Allen at 13:54 and an Allen jumper at 13:24. However, Carter helped Delaware get back into the contest with 17 second-half points.

Northeastern is back at home this Saturday, hosting UNC Wilmington at Matthews Arena at 1 p.m.