TOWSON, Md. – Playing without its two leading scorers, the Northeastern men's basketball team (6-8, 0-3) trimmed a 15-point deficit with 7:17 left all the way down to four with 18 seconds to go against one of the top teams in the CAA, but Towson (10-5, 1-1) was able to escape with a 70-67 victory on Sunday at SECU Arena.
 
The Huskies were also without head coach Bill Coen and assistants Brian McDonald and Manny Adako due to COVID-19 protocols as assistant Joel Smith guided Northeastern to a 40% day from the floor (23-of-57) led by Chris Doherty's third double-double of the season (12 points, 11 rebounds).
 
Nikola Djogo led NU with 17 points on 5-of-12 from the floor, while Jahmyl Telfort also reached double figures with 14 points (6-of-11) and three rebounds. 
 
Cameron Holden was the story for Towson, who scored 12 of his 18 points in the second half along with 10 boards to lead five Tigers in double figures. TU was 25-of-53 overall and 6-of-20 from three on the afternoon.
 
• Towson used an 11-1 run early in the opening half to take a 16-7 lead with 11:42 remaining, before the Huskies answered with a 15-3 run of their own to erase the deficit and take their first lead of the game at the under-8 timeout (22-19), capped by back-to-back threes from Djogo and Telfort.
 
• The Tigers, which shot 52% (13-of-25) in the first half, closed the period on a 13-4 run to take a nine-point lead into the locker room, 37-28.
 
• Northeastern came out firing in the second half, hitting four of its first six shots to level the game at 39 with 15:14, including five points from Telfort.
 
• Holden got hot from there, there, leading a 10-3 Tigers run to give the hosts the lead again midway through the half and ballooning it up to 15 points with under eight minutes to play.
 
• Northeastern wouldn't go away, though, using a 7-0 run capped by a three from Glen McClintock to bring NU within eight before an 8-2 run highlighted by a thunderous dunk from Djogo made it a four-point game with under a minute to go, but Northeastern was unable to cut it to one possession in the final seconds. 
 
The Huskies will be back in action on Tuesday when Northeastern travels to James Madison for a 7 p.m. tip.