Box Score
BOSTON – Despite a game-high 15 points from sophomore
David Walker (Stow, Ohio), the Northeastern men's basketball team came up short against James Madison on Wednesday, falling by a score of 49-46 in CAA action at Matthews Arena.
In a game featuring 10 ties and eight lead changes, the Huskies (7-15, 4-4 CAA) went scoreless for the final 2:37 as James Madison (8-13, 3-4 CAA) held on to deal NU its ninth loss of the season by five points or less.
The Huskies had two chances to tie or take the lead in the final minute, but came up empty both times. With JMU clinging to a 47-46 lead, junior
Demetrius Pollard (Virginia Beach, Va.) missed a contested 3-pointer with 42 seconds to play. James Madison corralled the rebound and scored at the other end to go up three with six seconds left, giving the Huskies one final chance to extend the game. Pollard raced down the court and got off a clean look at the buzzer, but his game-tying bid would not go.
Pollard scored nine points and added four assists, while freshman
Jimmy Marshall (Richmond, Va.) chipped in a career-high six points off the bench. Junior
Scott Eatherton (Hershey, Pa.) was held in check to the tune of five points on 2-of-5 shooting, but did manage to pull down a game-high 13 rebounds.
Andre Nation paced the Dukes with 13 points and Andrey Semenov added nine, including a big 3-pointer that put JMU ahead for good, 47-44, with 3:15 remaining. Taylor Bessick and Charles Cooke each chipped in eight points apiece, while Ron Curry had six points and five assists.
The Huskies out-rebounded James Madison, 31-28, but shot just 38-percent from the floor (17-for-45) and 46-percent from the foul line (6-for-13). The Dukes forced 17 NU turnovers and outscored the Huskies, 32-22, in the paint.
After a slow start, the Huskies finally came alive when sophomore
Zach Stahl (Chanhassen, Minn.) hit a hook shot in the paint to cut the JMU lead to 7-4 at the 13:10 mark.
On the ensuing possession, Walker jumped in front of a pass and raced the other way for a one-handed slam to cut the deficit to one. Then, after a defensive stop, the Huskies took an 8-7 lead when Pollard galloped down the lane and dished to sophomore
Derrico Peck (Woodstock, Ga.) for the flush.
James Madison regained the lead at 10-8, but Northeastern quickly responded on back-to-back buckets by junior
Marco Banegas-Flores (Boston, Mass.) and Marshall, whose 3-pointer gave the hosts a 13-11 lead with eight minutes left in the half.
The Huskies pushed the advantage to four, 19-15, before Nation rattled off five straight points on a steal and layup, followed by a triple from the left wing, to give JMU a 20-19 edge with four minutes remaining.
Marshall nailed another 3-pointer from the top of the arc to put NU back in front, but Nation was quick to answer, scoring off an inbound play to level the score at 22-apiece with 1:10 showing on the clock.
The teams then traded layups in the final minute as the players retreated to the locker rooms in a 24-24 deadlock at the break.
After failing to record a field goal in the first half, Eatherton opened the second stanza with a pair of quick buckets to keep the score tied, 31-31.
James Madison broke the stalemate with an 8-2 run over the next five minutes, highlighted by a back-door alley-oop slam from Nation, to take a 39-33 lead with 11:24 remaining.
Northeastern punched back with a 7-0 run of its own to tie the score once again, 41-41, after a pair of 3-pointers by Pollard and Walker with just over five minutes to play.
A layup and free throw by Semenov put the Dukes back in front by three, but the Huskies quickly knotted things up when Pollard wrestled away a loose ball at center court and fed Walker for the layup and the foul with 3:39 left.
Semenov came up big again on the ensuing possession, draining a three to give the visitors the lead back at 47-44. Stahl responded with a finger-roll with 2:37 to play, but Northeastern went scoreless the rest of the way as the Dukes held on for the road win.
The Huskies return to action on Monday, Feb. 3, at Delaware. Opening tipoff is set for 7 p.m.
Game notes
> The Huskies allowed fewer than 50 points for the first time this season; it was the fifth time in six games NU has held an opponent to fewer than 60 points
> Nine of Northeastern's 15 losses have been by five points or less
>
Jimmy Marshall scored a career-high six points
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Scott Eatherton was held to a season-low five points but notched his 15th double-figure rebounding game of the season
>
Reggie Spencer (injury) missed his third consecutive game
> The win was James Madison's first at Northeastern since Dec. 1, 2007
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