The independent student newspaper of Northeastern University

The Huntington News

The independent student newspaper of Northeastern University

The Huntington News

The independent student newspaper of Northeastern University

The Huntington News

Men’s basketball loses to William & Mary

By Emily McCarthy, News Staff

The Northeastern men’s basketball team fell to the College of William & Mary Saturday, 81-67, in a game in which the Huskies never led. Northeastern fell to 6-9 in Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) play and 9-20 overall.

“I thought we obviously played a very good team in William & Mary,” Huskies head coach Bill Coen said. “It was senior night down there so emotions were running high for them and I think they have one of the top two or three players in the league in Marcus Thornton. We got off to a little bit of a slow start and every time we got within striking distance Marcus Thornton had an answer for us.”

Thornton, a 6-foot-4-inch junior guard, nailed five three-pointers and finished with a game-high 25 points.

“He made a couple big threes, big shots, and really kept us at bay all afternoon,” Coen said of Thornton. “I thought ultimately he was the difference in the basketball game.”

Redshirt-junior forward Scott Eatherton racked up three personal fouls in the first half. The foul trouble limited Northeastern’s double-double machine to just 18 minutes on the court.

Coen said Eatherton’s decreased playing time hurt the team offensively, as Eatherton is the team’s leading scorer.

“It also affects our rebounding, he’s a terrific rebounder, our leading rebounder,” Coen said. “That affects us not only getting offensive rebounds but getting defensive rebounds and finishing defensive possessions with stops instead of putbacks. And I thought they got a couple offensive putbacks because he wasn’t in the game.”

At halftime, William & Mary led, 33-24.

Northeastern kicked off the second half scoring with a jumper from sophomore guard David Walker, but the Tribe quickly answered and continued to stifle NU’s chances of building some offensive momentum.

The Huskies were able to pull within 5 points of William & Mary midway through the second half, but that would be the closest Northeastern would come to tying the score.

Freshman guard T.J. Williams led the Huskies with 16 points in the loss. Walker finished with 12 points and junior guard Demetrius Pollard added 10.

The Huskies will play their final regular season game against Drexel University Saturday at Matthews Arena before the CAA tournament. Tipoff is set for 1 p.m.

“I’m looking for us to take a step forward. We’re right on the cusp of March Madness and we’ll be heading down to Baltimore in a week’s time, getting ready for the conference tournament,” Coen said. “And I think the tournament is wide open. So if we can play a little bit better and hit some stride, I think we can go down to Baltimore and surprise some people.”

 

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