Box Score |
Coen Postgame |
Recap
ELON, N.C.– It took an overtime period, but the Northeastern men's basketball team earned an 81-70 victory over Elon Thursday night. The victory marked the Huskies' fourth-straight over Elon, in their first appearance at the Schar Center.
A steal and score by Donnell Gresham with 37 seconds left in the second half, evened the game at 63-all. After the Phoenix built up a two-point lead on a pair of Tyler Seibring free throws, while trying wind some time off the clock, Nathan Priddy got his pocket picked by Gresham, who then laid in the game-tying basket forcing the extra period.
In overtime,
Vasa Pusica started things off with a couple of buckets, as the Huskies built up an eight-point lead and never looked back. Down the stretch, Northeastern went 9-of-10 from the free throw line to seal the victory.
Five different Huskies netted double-digit scoring nights as Pusica led the way with 19 points and seven assists while Donnell Gresham picked up his third double-double of the season with 11 points and 10 rebounds.
Anthony Green added another 15-point effort finishing with six rebounds.
The duo of Steven Santa Ana and Seibring once again led the way for Elon combining for 42 of Elon's 70 points.
FIRST HALF
The threes were falling, and the Huskies defense was stingy as Northeastern got out to a quick 10-6 lead before the first media timeout and never looked back.
The Huskies offense was clicking on all cylinders, and midway through the stanza, Northeastern had connected on four threes and built their lead to nine, 20-11 following a
Jason Strong trey.
That lead continued to build as the Huskies doubled Elon's total, 26-13, following a 6-0 run over a 51 second span that forced Elon head coach Matt Matheny to call a timeout and settle things.
Following the timeout, the Phoenix countered with an 8-0 run of their own, over a 90 second span to cut the lead down to 31-25 following a Steven Santa Ana three-point play with 4:13 to go in the first. But the Huskies bounced right back with a 9-0 run of their own and headed into the locker rooms with a 40-28 advantage.
SECOND HALF
The Phoenix used a 13-0 run to make it a 47-44 ball game with 10:56 to go in the second frame as the Huskies were held scoreless for over seven minutes, and going 0-for-9 from the field during that span before a Pusica runner in the paint ended the drought with just over 10 minutes to go.
A Sheldon Eberhardt three with six minutes to go cut the once 16-point lead to three, but
Anthony Green built the lead back up to six with a three-point play.
Four-straight Santa Ana free throws made it a one-point game, 59-58, and on the next possession, the Phoenix took their first lead of the game on an Eberhardt layup with 2:48 to go prompting a
Bill Coen timeout.
With the Phoenix up 63-61, Gresham swept in and snagged the ball from Priddy, setting himself up for the game-tying score.
His try with time winding down, circled all around the rim and sat on the edge for a second before falling out as the two teams headed to over time.
OVERTIME
Northeastern scored the first eight points of the frame, including three and a layup from Pusica to start things off and they never looked back going on to score 18 in the five minute period and come away with the victory.
NEXT UP
The Huskies three-game road trip comes to a close on Saturday afternoon when the team heads to Williamsburg, Va. to face off against William & Mary at 4 p.m. at Kaplan Arena.
