WASHINGTON – Drexel (17-15) used red hot first half shooting from three to jump out to an early lead on the Northeastern men's basketball team (7-24) before holding on against the Huskies on Saturday in the Second Round of the 2026 Air Force Reserve CAA Men's Basketball Championship, 84-77.
Northeastern recovered from a 36% shooting performance in the first half to go 51% from the floor in the final 20 minutes, cutting a 22-point deficit all the way down to four in the final minutes before running out of time.
Mike Loughnane was sensational for the Huskies, dropping a career-high 29 points on 8-of-10 from the floor, 3-of-3 from three and 10-of-10 from the line along with a game-high six assists. He scored 22 of those points in the second half to led Northeastern to 55 second half points.
Loughnane was joined in double figures by
Liam Koelsch, who recorded a career-high 14 points on a perfect 7-of-7 day from the field along with a team-high seven rebounds, while
Xavier Abreu added 13 points that all came in the second half.
NU finished the day 28-of-63 overall and 5-of-22 from deep, while Drexel was 25-of-49 overall and 8-of-17 from three led by 21 points from Eli Beard.
Drexel couldn't miss from distance in the first half, connecting on eight makes from deep including a string of five straight makes to bolt out to lead by as many as 22 before taking a 39-22 lead into the break.
Victor Panov went for 12 points on 4-of-4 from three to lead the Dragons, which shot 56% overall and put the clamps on Northeastern defensively, holding the Huskies to 10-of-28 from the field and 2-of-9 from long range in the first half, led by seven points from Loughnane.
Northeastern wouldn't go quietly, shooting 51% in the second half to start chipping away, starting with a 17-4 run over more than five minutes capped by a triple from Loughnane to make it a six-point game with 4:16 to play.
A pair of Shane Blakeney jumpers put Drexel back up by double digits briefly before the Huskies started sending the Dragons to the line, where they did enough to put the game out of reach.
