BOSTON – The Northeastern men's basketball team (10-16, 5-8 CAA) brought a double-digit second-half deficit back to trail Charleston (19-7, 9-3 CAA) by three with just 1:34 to play, but the Huskies couldn't equalize and fell to the Cougars 77-73 at Matthews Arena Thursday evening.
 
Northeastern used an 8-0 run with 3:45 to play to come back from being down 11 points and held Charleston to a single point in the last four minutes, but a Reyne Smith free throw iced the contest with 10 seconds to play.
 
Graduate student guard Luka Sakota led a hot shooting offense, scoring 23 points on 5-of-9 three-point shooting, while sophomore Harold Woods (19 points, 8-for-11 FG) and graduate student forward Chris Doherty (14 points, 11 rebounds) were the other main contributors.
 
As a team, the Huskies finished 29-of-57 overall and 10-of-23 from three, while Smith led two Cougars in double figures with 21 points on 6-of-10 from long range for a Charleston team that shot 42% as a team, 15-of-39 from deep and outscored the Huskies off the bench 33-2. 
 
It was a track meet out of the gates with seven ties and eight lead changes in the first half, with Northeastern leading for more than 10 minutes before a 16-4 Charleston run to close the half gave the visitors a 43-38 lead at the break.
 
Woods had it going early, starting the night 5-of-5 for 12 first half points before Sakota added nine points, all from beyond the arc, for a Northeastern team that shot 58% (15-of-26) and 63% from deep (5-of-8).
 
Charleston, meanwhile, shot 43% as a team and 8-of-20 from three in the half, led by nine points apiece from Jordan Crawford and Khalil London.
 
Once play resumed, Northeastern hung close with the Cougars for the first nine minutes of the second — even taking a two-point lead off a Sakota pull-up triple — before a barrage of three-pointers and an Ante Brzovic fast break layup accumulated in an 11-0 run for the Cougars, who wouldn't lose the lead.
 
The Huskies will head back on the road for a Saturday afternoon matchup at Hofstra. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m. on MSG and FloHoops.