Box Score |
Highlights |
Roland threes |
Coen Postgame |
Recap
HARRISONBURG, Va.– Led by a 29-point effort from
Jordan Roland, the Northeastern men's basketball team took down James Madison on Saturday afternoon at the Convocation Center, 78-68.
With the win, the Huskies (12-9, 6-3 CAA) finished the weekend 1-1 and remain in second place in the CAA in a tie with Delaware.
Roland's 29 points came via a career-high 8-for-12 shooting night from deep, his fifth effort of 5+ treys on the season. The eight threes tie for second place in a single game in the Northeastern record book with Marcus Barnes (vs. Vermont, Jan. 7, 2004) and Demetrius Pollard (vs. CCSU, Nov. 16, 2013) and are the most since
Bolden Brace hit a school record 10 treys at Elon (Feb. 23, 2017).
Also fueling the Huskies was
Vasa Pusica, who finished with 10 points and a Northeastern career-high 10 rebounds, finishing with his first double-double of the season and fifth career.
Shawn Occeus added 14 points, six rebounds and a pair of blocks while
Bolden Brace had nine rebounds, six assists and three points on the night. Donnell Gresham finished with 12 points, and was perfect from the charity stripe for the Huskies.
JMU was led by Stuckey Mosley who finished with 23 points and five rebounds on the day, while Matt Lewis added 17 points and six rebounds.
Overall, the Huskies outrebounded the Dukes 40-31 in the outing.
FIRST HALF
JMU took a quick, early lead at the first media, but after the break and following a Roland trey, the Huskies gained the lead with 12:44 to go in the first half and never looked back.
Shawn Occeus came out of a media timeout and slammed one down as Brace found him streaking in the paint.
Led by Roland, who finished the first half with 16 points including four of his eight treys on the day, Northeastern built up a nine-point lead by halftime, thanks to, yet again, another Roland trey.
During the first half, Northeastern caused six JMU turnovers, and capitalized on those miscues with nine points off of them. During the same time they made just two slip ups of their own, to which the Dukes were unable to put up any points.
SECOND HALF
The Huskies started the second half strong as
Anthony Green swatted JMU's initial shot attempt and Occeus finished with a huge slam on the other end.
Meanwhile, Roland kept rolling in the second half as his threes continued to fall and the Huskies continued to build upon their lead until they were ahead by 20 points, 68-48, with 5:43 to go in the half.
JMU then came alive, behind the trio of Mosely, Lewis, and Zach Jacobs who combined for the team's final 18-points, including a 10-0 run to make it a seven point game with 1:16 left to play.
But Pusica hit all of his free throws down the stretch, extending his made free-throw streak to 27, completing the double-double, and sealing the victory for the Huskies.
NEXT UP
The Huskies are back at Matthews Arena next week when they take on current conference leader Hofstra on Saturday, Feb. 2 at 4:30 p.m. Tickets are still available for the showdown
here.
