Box score

Chaisson Allen made two of three free throws after drawing a foul on a 27-foot three-point attempt with half a second left to break a 48-48 tie and lift the Northeastern University men's basketball team to a 50-48 win over George Mason Saturday at the Patriot Center. The free throws completed a comeback that saw the Huskies down four with a minute left.

The Huskies wrapped up the No. 2 seed in next week's CAA Championship and will get a bye into the quarterfinals. They will play the winner of the first-round Hofstra-Georgia State matchup next Saturday at the Richmond Coliseum in Richmond, Va., at 6 p.m.

The win gives the Huskies 14 victories in the CAA, most since joining the league. Today's victory was NU's first at George Mason (17-13, 12-6 CAA) since joining the CAA in 2005 and gave the Huskies a 6-1 record this season against the CAA schools located in Virginia.

Northeastern (19-11, 14-4 CAA) trailed by four, 46-42, with 1:01 remaining after George Mason's Luke Hancock made a pair of free throws. The Huskies missed two three-pointers, but got offensive rebounds both times to retain possession. After a timeout, Joel Smith drove to the hoop down the baseline and made a reverse layup and drawing the foul. He made the free throw to cut the deficit to one, 46-45.

The Huskies then fouled Ryan Pearson with 33 seconds left, and Pearson made both free throws to make it 48-45. After another timeout, NU put the ball in the hands of Matt Janning, who took a screen and drilled a 24-foot three-pointer with Pearson's hand in his face to tie the game at 48-48 with 23 seconds on the clock.

NU then made a defensive stand as Luke Hancock missed a layup, Mike Morrison tried to dunk home the putback, but it clanged off the rim and reached Allen, who dribbled up court, took a shot and was fouled by Pearson, who tried to swipe at the ball, but instead got Allen's arm. Allen made the first two and then missed the third, allowing the clock to run out.

The ending was appropriate for a contest that saw neither team have a lead larger than seven points, had six ties and 12 lead changes.

Janning finished with a game-high 18 points, 12 in the second half, and was 8-for-19 from the field. Allen finished with 10 points and seven rebounds. NU shot just 35 percent from the field, but was 7-for-8 from the free throw line. George Mason shot 41 percent from the field, but only 64 percent (9-for-14) from the line.

The first half proved to be an exercise in defense and missed shots as both teams struggled to find the bottom of the basket. Northeastern was just 9-for-28 (32.1 percent) in the first half, 1-for-10 from three-point range, and George Mason did not fair much better, going 9-for-26 (34.6 percent) from the field and 0-for-6 from behind the arc. Through the first seven minutes of the game only eight combined points were scored.

The Patriots took control with a 7-0 run that included a Sherrod Wright layup and back-to-back Pearson layups to make it 13-6 at the 8:56 mark. Northeastern responded a 6-0 run that included a Janning steal and dunk and a Vinny Lima layup after grabbing his own miss. It was 13-12 Mason when Wright then had a pair of dunks and drew fouls on both. He missed the first three-point play and made the second, giving the Patriots an 18-12 lead.

It was 20-15 when the Huskies ended the half with six consecutive points. Manny Adako had a running jumper at 3:12, Nkem Ojougboh connected on a pair of free throws after getting fouled on a dunk attempt, and Janning had a teardrop in the lane at 1:14. The NU defense held Mason to four missed shots and two turnovers in the final three minutes as the Huskies went into halftime up 21-20.

Early on in the second half, a Smith three and a Janning teardrop put the Huskies up four, 24-20, but Mason stayed in the game, and the two teams stayed within three points of each other until the Patriots went up four with a minute left after an NU cold streak saw the Huskies without a point from 4:49 until Smith's three-point play.

Wright led George Mason with 13 points, and Pearson chipped in 11. Morrison had eight points and a game-high 12 rebounds.