BOSTON – Entering the weekend in a four-way tie for first place in the CAA standings, the Northeastern men's basketball team (18-10, 10-5 CAA) will close out its home schedule with a pivotal late-season matchup against Drexel (10-16, 7-8 CAA) on Saturday at 4 p.m. on NBCSN. Saturday will also be senior day as the Huskies will recognize
Scott Eatherton,
Reggie Spencer, and head manager Danny Young prior to the game.
PROMOTIONS: Saturday will be #LightUpMatthews Day. All fans in attendance will receive a free "Light Up Matthews" t-shirt courtesy of Northeastern Athletics. One lucky student will also have the chance to win free rent for a year (up to $50,000) by making a layup, free throw, 3-pointer, and half-court shot within 30 seconds. Fans should enter the contest at the Boston Brokerage Group table in the main lobby. Rules and regulations apply.
STORY LINES• Northeastern and Drexel will meet for the 57th time on Wednesday with the Dragons leading the all-time series, 38-18. Drexel edged the Huskies, 65-60, on Jan. 28 in Philadelphia behind a 33-point effort from Damion Lee. Northeastern led by 10 at the half, 29-19, but a 19-6 Drexel run out of the locker room gave the Dragons a lead they would not relinquish.Â
• Since head coach
Bill Coen took charge of the Huskies in 2006, Northeastern is 6-1 against Drexel when holding the Dragons to 60 or fewer points. Conversely, NU is 1-11 vs. Drexel when allowing the Dragons to score 61 points or more.
• Northeastern (10-5 CAA) enters Saturday's game in a four-way tie for first place in the CAA standings with William & Mary, UNCW and James Madison. In the event of a four-way tie, the tiebreaker to determine seeding is head-to-head results against the other tied teams: William & Mary is 5-1 against the other 10-5 teams, UNCW is 3-2, Northeastern is 3-3, and JMU is 0-5. Therefore, if the postseason started today, the order of seeding would be as follows (remaining schedules shown in parentheses):
1. W&M (at HOF, vs. TOW, vs. DU)
2. UNCW (at TOW, vs. JMU, at Elon)
3. NU (vs. DU, at Elon, at CofC)
4. JMU (vs. CofC, at UNCW, vs. HOF)
• The Huskies are coming off a 75-64 win over William & Mary on Wednesday at Matthews Arena. Northeastern shot 59 percent and hit nine 3-pointers, including four by junior
David Walker (21 points), to improve to 7-1 all-time against the Tribe in Boston. Junior
Zach Stahl added 15 points on 7-of-8 shooting, while sophomore
T.J. Williams and redshirt junior
Quincy Ford chipped in 14 and 11 points, respectively.
• The Huskies tied a season high with 20 assists on 26 field goals on Wednesday vs. William & Mary. Northeastern has registered assists on 60.9 percent of its made field goals this season, and is averaging 14.5 assists per game, which ranks 57th in the nation.
• The Huskies rank 25th in the nation in field goal shooting with a 47.8 percent clip this season. Northeastern has shot 50 percent or better in 11 of 28 games and owns an 11-0 mark in those contests, including an 8-0 record in CAA games.
• Northeastern is 10-0 this season when it scores 70 points or more in a game. Conversely, the Huskies are 8-10 when scoring 69 points or fewer.
• Prior to Saturday's game, the Huskies will honor
Scott Eatherton and
Reggie Spencer on senior day. Eatherton has amassed 1,438 points in his collegiate career–including 923 in a Huskies' uniform–while Spencer has notched 938 career points in 118 games with NU.
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