Box score

Chaisson Allen scored 15 of his game-high and season-high 23 points in the second half, and his three-pointer with 4:44 remaining put the Northeastern University men's basketball on top for good in a 65-56 victory over UNC Wilmington Tuesday at Trask Coliseum. The Huskies overcame a 14-point second-half deficit to earn its first-ever win in Wilmington.

With his effort tonight, Allen has reached the career 1,000 points mark, the 30th player in program history to do so. As a junior having played in 90 career games, he stands at 1,010 points.

The victory coupled with a Drexel loss has clinched Northeastern (18-9, 13-3 CAA) a first-round bye in the CAA Tournament for the second consecutive season. The Huskies remain in a first-place tie with Old Dominion with two conference games. Both teams are two games ahead of third-place William & Mary and George Mason. The 13 conference victories are the most for the program since joining the CAA in 2005.

"We have some veteran players, and I thought that Manny Adako played very well down the stretch...Chaisson Allen played very well...Matt Janning as always," said Northeastern head coach Bill Coen. "But that experience is crucial if you're going to expect to win conference games on the road, particularly when they're close like tonight's ballgame was.

"You need to keep your composure, not panic, chip away at the lead and put yourself in position to make a play at the end of the game. And I thought our veteran leadership helped us do that tonight."

UNC Wilmington went into the second half leading 35-24, then went up 14 points, 38-24, when Keith Rendleman converted a three-point play on the first possession of the second half.

From that point on, it was all Huskies as they ended the game on a 41-18 run. Down 41-28, a 6-0 run capped by an Allen steal and dunk, brought NU within six, 41-35. UNCW went back on top by nine a couple of times, but Matt Janning converted a three-point attempt off a Kauri Black pass to get the Huskies back within six, 48-42, with 11:40 to play. Allen then followed with a fastbreak jumper in the paint and then a pair of free throws to pull NU within two, 48-46.

At 50-49, NU took its first lead since 19:45 in the first half when Adako hit a layup at the 7:19 mark. Allen then had a big play by grabbing Janning's missed shot and put it back in for a layup to put the Huskies up three, 53-50.

UNC Wilmington battled back with a Darion Jeralds basket and the foul, but he missed the free throw. After an NU miss, Ahmad Grant came up big with a running jumper down the baseline to put the Seahawks back on top, 54-53, with 5:11 to play.

However, that set the scene for Allen, who drained the three-pointer in the left corner off a kickout pass from Janning to allow NU to reclaim the lead 56-54.

After that, Northeastern scored nine of the game's 11 points, mostly on free throws. The Seahawks missed five of their last seven shots and had to foul to stay in the game. But the Huskies were 7-for-8 from the free throw line in the game's final four minutes.

The Huskies got off to a sluggish start, spotting the Seahawks a 19-6 lead by the 11:14 mark. UNCW rained three-pointers on the Huskies early on. Grant got the Seahawks on the board with a three. Then with the game tied at 6-6, UNCW hit three consecutive triples; Dominique Lacy, Chad Tomko and Trevor Deloach all connected from outside.

The Huskies had a mini run, scoring six consecutive points to force UNCW to regroup. However, the Seahawks didn't let up, forcing a few Huskies turnovers and converting them into points. NU trailed at halftime 35-24, allowing UNCW to shoot 5-for-9 from behind the arc. The Huskies committed seven turnovers that turned into 12 Seahawk points.

It was a tale of two halves for Northeastern as the Huskies only had three turnovers in the second half and forced 12 UNC Wilmington turnovers in the second half. NU held UNCW to nine second-half field goals, shooting only 32.1 percent.

Grant led the Seahawks with 11 points. Star forward John Fields only played two minutes after suffering an injury early on. UNCW was 5-for-9 from three-point range in the first half, but only 2-for-10 in the second half.

Allen was 8-for-13 from the field, 3-for-5 from three-point range. He added six rebounds and four steals. Adako was 10-for-17 from the floor and chipped in a team-high eight rebounds.

Northeastern will take a break from conference play to tackle a challenger from the Western Athletic Conference. The Huskies will host Louisiana Tech at Matthews Arena Saturday at 1 p.m. The game is part of the BracketBusters event and will be televised on ESPN2.