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Northeastern University Athletics

Northeastern Huskies
Alwayne Bigby

Men's Basketball

Winning streak snapped as NU loses to Drexel

Box score

The Northeastern University men's basketball team was limited to 31 percent shooting and was outrebounded 46-30 as the Huskies fell to Drexel 61-48 Wednesday at Matthews Arena. The loss snaps NU's 11-game winning streak, which had been the second-longest active run in the nation.

The Huskies slip to 13-8 overall, 8-2 in the CAA and at the moment are in third place in the conference behind George Mason and Old Dominion. Drexel improves to 12-10, 7-3 in the CAA, and now holds the season tiebreaker over Northeastern.

It was a very, very hard fought basketball game," said Northeastern head coach Bill Coen. "I thought it was one of the more physical games we've been involved in in a while. I thought that physicality really prevented us from getting the quality ball movement and shot selection that we've been accustomed to over the last few games.

"I thought in the second half we picked up our energy on defense and got our offense going for our defense with some turnovers and some run-outs. But there were critical junctures where I thought Drexel came out with terrific second efforts on the backboard and really took the wind out of our sails right when we were making a run at them."

Nkem Ojougboh led the Huskies with 14 points, five rebounds and five blocked shots. Jamie Harris and Chris Fouch both had 13 points to lead Drexel, which only shot 40.4 percent for the game, but outhustled the Huskies to all the loose ball rebounds. The Dragons had 14 offensive rebounds that helped lead to 13 second chance points.

In the first half, Manny Adako began the scoring with a layup on the first possession of the game, but Drexel went on a 14-0 run to open up a one-sided first half. Harris helped get the run going with a three-pointer at 17:58. After Baptiste Bataille ended a seven-minute Huskies scoreless streak with a steal and fastbreak layup, Drexel opened up a 15-point advantage with a Kevin Phillip layup and a three-pointer by
Fouch made it 19-4 with 10:20 remaining.

Northeastern struggled with perimeter shooting in the first half, going just 1-for-7 from three-point range. With a season-low 19 points in the first half, the Huskies trailed at halftime 31-19.

Northeastern started the second half with some energy on a pretty Chaisson Allen-to-Janning alley oop lay in, sparking an 11-4 run that included a big three-pointer by Janning that had followed an Ojougboh block on Samme Givens and a Fouch missed three. Ojougboh connected on a pair of free throws at 14:03 that cut NU's deficit to three, 35-32, with 14:03 to play.

The teams began trading baskets for a few minutes. Allen made it a game again with a big three-pointer at 8:34 that cut Drexel's lead to four, 43-39. However, that was as close as the Huskies came. Fouch hit a three at 6:19. Then Allen turned the ball over to Harris, who connected on a fastbreak layup to quickly make it a nine-point lead.

NU was within six, 50-44, at 3:11, but Leon Spencer hit a mid-range jumper with the shot clock winding down, letting the wind out of Northeastern's rally.

The Huskies also suffered from poor free throw shooting, making just 11of-17 from the line. Also, in the game's final two minutes, the Huskies were 0-for-6 from the field.

Northeastern will look to shake off the defeat as the Huskies face Old Dominion Saturday in another critical CAA contest. The game takes place at Matthews Arena at 4 p.m., and will be televised live on Comcast SportsNet.
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