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BOSTON – In a game that came down to the final minutes, the Northeastern men's basketball team held off Vermont for a 71-67 victory to earn their fourth-straight win and improve to 5-0 at Matthews Arena this season.
 
The win also marked the third-straight for the Huskies over Vermont.
 
Vermont (6-4) managed to make it a one-point game with just over two minutes to go, but Shawn Occeus drilled a three, on the ensuing possession, to give the Huskies a four-point lead with 1:45 to go. Lamb cut the lead to two with a pair of free throws and after a missed layup on each end of the court, Lamb fouled Vasa Pusica with 17 seconds to go. Pusica nailed both free throws to keep the game out of reach.
 
The Huskies (6-4) were led by Donnell Gresham who finished with 17 points, five rebounds, three assists and three steals on the night while Occeus added a season-high 16 points as well as three steals, two assists and a lot of defensive energy on the day. Pusica finished with 12 points, 10 of which came in the second half, as well as three assists.
 
The majority of Vermont's offense came at the hands of Anthony Lamb, with Trae Bell-Haynes out for the game. Lamb finished with 32 points and was a perfect 15-for-15 from the free throw line on the day helping to keep the Catamounts in the game down the stretch.
 
With the win, Northeastern has now defeated the Ivy League preseason favorite (Harvard; 77-61), Patriot League favorite (Bucknell; 82-64) and America East favorite (Vermont; 71-67) in their four-game win streak encompassing the last nine days.
 
FIRST HALF
The Huskies got out to an 11-point lead in the first half thanks to eight Catamount turnovers which resulted in 14 Husky points.
 
The two teams traded baskets to begin the game and after Vermont hit a three to go ahead 7-4, Gresham answered with a three from the corner to tie up the game.
 
For every UVM basket, the Huskies answered until Gresham hit another three to give Northeastern a 17-16 lead. Bolden Brace followed that with a three of his own which led Vermont head coach John Becker to call a quick timeout with the Huskies up 20-18 and eight-and-a-half minutes to go.
 
Northeastern came out of that timeout and went on a 10-0 run as the Huskies defense led to their own offense. First Occeus and Jeremy Miller combined to force an Lamb miss which led to a Devon Begley and-one. Occeus forced a steal and sank two free throws and he followed that with another steal and a fastbreak layup to make it a 27-18 lead in favor of Northeastern in just a 1:15 span.
 
Vermont was awarded free throws for an intentional foul, but following those Occeus drove in for a layup and Gresham forced a steal, along with the finish, to make it an 11-point ballgame, 31-20, forcing Becker to call his second timeout of the first half.
 
The Huskies were unable to manage a field goal for the final 6:04 of the stanza, following Gresham's fastbreak layup, but still headed to the locker room with a four-point lead, 36-32, adding four points on  4-4 shooting from the charity stripe during that span.  
 
SECOND HALF
Vermont closed the gap in the second half as a Lamb lay-in made it a 41-41 ballgame with 16:35 to go. The tie game jumpstarted a Husky mini-run as Pusica drilled a three and Occeus followed that up with his third steal of the game, slamming the ball down for the finish to make it a 46-41 game.
 
Following a UVM basket, Gresham hit a trey, his fourth of the game to tie his career-high set earlier this season, making it a six-point game, 49-43 in favor of the Huskies. That bucket was followed by a Boursiquot steal and a Green finish as Becker called his third timeout of the game with 14:30 to go.
 
Vermont fought back and made it a three-point game, 62-59, following a Lamb and-one. The Catamounts got as close as one-point as Lamb putback off a free throw miss made it a 66-65 game with 2:12 to go. But Occeus came down and drained a three on the other end for the four-point advantage and put the game out of reach for Vermont.
 
Lamb hit his 14^th and 15^th free throws of the day to get Vermont within two, but Pusica drilled a pair of free throws on the other end to solidify the 71-67 victory.   
 
UP NEXT
The Huskies will finish out the non-conference portion of their schedule next week when they head to Kent State for a Monday night meeting with the Golden Flashes on Dec. 18 followed by the non-conference finale at St. Bonaventure on Wednesday, Dec. 20. Both games are at 7 p.m.