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LEWISBURG, Pa.– Led by a pair of double-doubles from Donnell Gresham and
Tomas Murphy, five double-digit scoring efforts and a season-high 24 assists, the Northeastern men's basketball team downed Bucknell in a wire-to-wire, 96-78 victory Wednesday night at Sojka Pavilion.
The victory marked the second-straight 18-point win over the Bison, as Northeastern halted a three-game losing skid to earn their third win of the season.
Jason Strong, who's offensive onslaught was corralled by some foul trouble, finished with a career-high 16 points in just 16 minutes of action, also pulling down a career best five rebounds. Murphy paced the Huskies with a career-high tying 21 points, and a career best 12 rebounds for his first double-double in a Northeastern uniform. Gresham added a double-double of his own with 16 points and 11 assists.
The Huskies spread the production around all night and ended the game with a season-high 24 assists, the most since a 25 assist effort at William & Mary last season. Thanks to those 24 assists, Northeastern shot 70 percent from the field in the first half, and finished with a 58.1 percent shooting night.
Bucknell was led by a 16-point night from Bruce Moore, who was 6-of-9 from the field against the Huskies. Paul Newman finished with 11 points and was 9-of-10 from the free throw line.
FIRST HALF
Northeastern got out of the gate hot, and never stopped firing in the first half, connecting on four threes in the first four minutes, led by
Jason Strong's eight-point effort in the span.
The Huskies got out to as much as a 23-7 lead, before Bucknell head coach Nathan Davis saw enough and called his first timeout of the half on the heels of a
Bolden Brace 3-pointer. Northeastern continued to build upon the lead, growing it to as much as 21 with 9:37 left in the first half, when Murphy netted one of his five first half baskets.
Murphy led the way for the Huskies with 11 first half points and six rebounds, while Strong,
Anthony Green, and Brace each added nine in the stanza.
Bucknell hit a handful of threes down the stretch, to keep the game within reason, but the Huskies headed to the locker room up 56-37.
The 56 first half points by Northeastern were the most since they netted 58 against Delaware in the first half on Jan. 5, 2017, a game they went on to win by 40.
SECOND HALF
The two teams came out basket-for-basket to start the second half, with Bucknell keeping pace with Northeastern for the entirety of the second stanza.
Murphy and Gresham kept their production going throughout the second half, and on a Murphy fast-break dunk with 7:02 remaining in the period, Gresham picked up his 10
thassist of the night, and in doing so earned his first career double-double.
Later in the second half, with three-and-a-half minutes to go, Murphy picked up his 10
threbound of the night, and with that earned HIS first career double-double.
The last time Northeastern had at least two double-doubles in the same game was when the trio of
Anthony Green (14p, 12r),
Vasa Pusica (16p, 10a) and
Bolden Brace (14p, 10r) did so against Hofstra last year (Jan. 25, 2018).
NEXT UP
The Huskies are finally back home at Matthews Arena where they will return to face Eastern Michigan after a near-month long road trip. The two teams will square off for the first time in program history Saturday afternoon at 3 p.m. on Faculty Staff night.
Northeastern Faculty and Staff are eligible for four free tickets to the game via MyNortheastern. Grab your tickets today!
