Northeastern men’s basketball (7-3, 0-0 CAA) kept its cool and continued to battle hard to end victorious against the Colgate University Raiders (2-8, 0-0 Patriot League), 75-78 Dec. 8.
Northeastern’s 11 turnovers in the first half led to the Raiders lead at halftime, but as the game progressed, the Huskies were able to hold on to the ball for longer.
“We were driving the single gaps and as they came up,” said head coach Bill Coen. “[Colgate] had 16 points on 11 turnovers and that was really their offense. So if we had played a little bit better on the offensive end, I think our defense would have been better.”
The Huskies started off strong as junior center Collin Metcalf won the jump ball and junior guard Rashad King notched the first basket of the game.
The beginning of the half was whistle heavy, as both teams missed point opportunities and had plenty of turnovers and fouls.
With 19 minutes left in the first half, the Huskies’ defense had two consecutive turnovers, with junior and sophomore guards LA Pratt and William Kermoury letting the ball get snatched as they drove to the basket. But Northeastern was lucky, as the Raiders did not take successfully advantage of the opportunity.
Despite the initial missteps, Northeastern continued extending their lead. With a little less than 14 minutes to go in the half, the scoreboard was in the Huskies’ favor, 10-3.
About four minutes later, Colgate sophomore guard Jalen Cox’s driving layup brought a burst of energy from the Raiders as they tightened their defense, causing a missed three-pointer from sophomore guard JB Frankel while Colgate senior guard Nicolas Louis-Jacques made his. With less than nine minutes to go, Pratt made another basket to notch 16 points to the Raider’s 11.
After an attempted layup by Metcalf, sophomore guard Parker Jones made a three-pointer with 7:15 minutes left on the clock. Thirty seconds later, junior guard Brady Cummins added to the score with another three, putting Colgate in the lead, 17-16, for the first time in the game.
Kermoury makes his first three-pointer of the game soon after, giving Northeastern a 19-17 point lead, but it was short-lived as Jones made another three-pointer, bringing the board to 19-20.
After two layups from Louis-Jacques and Cummins, Northeastern called a timeout to assess its mistakes on offense.
Back on the court, junior guard Masai Troutman fouled Jones, which brought him to the line where he made both free throws, extending Colgate’s lead to 26-19.
With three-and-a-half minutes left in the first half, King brought the score a little closer with a basket, 28-21.
Trying to stimulate more opportunities to take back the lead before halftime, junior forward Youri Fritz attempted a shot that bounced back and graduate student forward Alexander Nwagha attempted to push it back in, but it wasn’t successful. During this shot, Fritz was fouled but only made one of his two free throws.
After misses from both teams, Troutman made a three-pointer with only 59 seconds left in the half,, during which he was also fouled by Cummins. He made one shot, bringing the score up to 26-32.
Jones attempted to shoot but it was blocked solidly by Nwagha. Following this success on defense, freshman guard Ryan Williams scored another basket for Northeastern, ending the half at 32-28 with Colgate on top.
The Huskies came out with fire in the second half.
Pratt passed to Kermoury, who was stuck and was forced to pass it back to Pratt at the top. Pratt brought it down to King, who was able to pass to Metcalf in the paint. Guarded and unable to do anything with the ball, he passed to Kermoury, who drove to the basket. Instead of going for the layup like the defense expected, Kermoury passed to junior guard Harold Woods, who made the basket easily, tightening the score 32-30, the Raiders still holding the lead.
After a missed layup by sophomore forward Cooper Wright, Pratt brought the ball down the court, where he missed his shot, but Metcalf was able to score off the rebound. Although Cox fouled Metcalf in an attempt to block the ball, the junior went to the line for one shot but missed.
After another missed attempt at the 18-minute mark by the Raiders and Kermoury’s rebound, Pratt drove down the court and scored, giving Northeastern the lead again, 32-34.
A minute later, Louis-Jacques tied the game up at 34.
About 20 seconds later, Pratt attempted a three-pointer but missed. King rebounded the ball and passed it to Woods, who passed it back to King, who made a three-pointer.
The teams continued to battle with some baskets and some misses, as Colgate clawed back for the teams to tie at 43 with 12 minutes left in the game.
Cummins made another three-pointer, and soon after, Nwagha pushed the ball in after an attempted shot from Troutman.
The Raiders and the Huskies continued their back and forth with the score until Northeastern started to run away with the advantage with less than eight-and-a-half minutes left. The run ended at six minutes, when the Raiders’ Jones scored a three and then another basket earned by Cox, 56-62.
With seven seconds left, Frankel fouled Louis-Jacques on his attempted three-pointer. The Raider made all three of his free-throws, making the game 73-75 for the Huskies.
Frankel was then fouled by Jones, but the Raider only made one of his two free throws. A second later, Frankel fouled Cox, who made his two free-throws, adding to the score on the board to 75-76.
With four seconds left, Baker fouled Frankel on a fast break. Frankel made both his free throws, ending the game. Cummins missed his three-pointer, the last chance of the game, leaving Northeastern victorious 75-78.
Northeastern will be on the road for their next game against the Old Dominion Monarchs Dec. 15 at 1 p.m.
