In what was a defensive battle throughout the entire game, Drexel used a late 9-1 run to defeat the men’s basketball team, 62-58, last night at Matthews Arena.
The loss drops the Huskies to 11-3 in the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) and 16-8 overall. Drexel improves to 9-5 in the CAA and 13-10 overall.
‘I thought we got beat by a team that was just tougher than us tonight,’ said Northeastern head coach Bill Coen. ‘Normally we pride ourselves on our defense and rebounding. I thought they outplayed us in both those aspects this evening.’
Despite the defeat, junior guard Baptiste Bataille followed up a career-high performance in points against UNC Wilmington Saturday with another career-high performance last night.
Bataille went a perfect 6-of-6 from the floor and 9-of-11 from the free throw line to finish with 19 points.
Fellow junior and guard Matt Janning was the’ only other Husky in double figures with 15 points.
In the first half, the Huskies jumped out to a quick 11-4 lead over the first 4:30.’ Senior forward Eugene Spates scored the team’s first five points with a three followed by a pair of free throws.’ Junior center Nkem Ojougboh had four during the run.
However, NU was held scoreless during the next 5:29 as the Dragons tied the game at 11 after a jumper in the lane by forward Leon Spencer.
The low-scoring first half concluded with a 10-2 Husky run. Points were spread out between four different players during the run, and Bataille finished it off with a three.
The half came to a close with NU holding a 23-15 advantage.
Both teams played strong defensively as the Huskies were held to just 8-of-20 from the floor while they held the Dragons to a 28.6 shooting percentage.
There were also a combined 19 turnovers in the half, Drexel with 10, and Northeastern with nine.
Janning got the second half started’ right for the Huskies as he buried back-to-back threes. NU took its biggest lead of the game of 13 points 2:30 into the half on a jumper by junior forward Manny Adako.
Drexel did not go away and was able to go on a 13-0 run to tie the game at 31 with 12:30 to play.
After a basket from forward Evan Neisler, the Dragons took their first lead of the game, 33-31, with 11:35 to play.
From that point the teams went back and forth, trading baskets on both ends of the floor until Drexel was able to pull away down the stretch.
The Huskies did not give up, though, and got the lead down to just four in the game’s final moments but were unable to get it closer than that as they ran out of time.
However, Coen’ said he was proud of the way his team battled down to the end.
‘We have a little pride too. We were out-toughed tonight, but we are a tough basketball team,’ he said. ‘On any given night if you don’t bring you’re A-game in this league, somebody is going to step up and beat you.’
The Huskies were plagued by long stretches of field goal droughts in both halves when they were unable to get anything to fall.
‘I think you just have to credit their defense,’ Coen said. ‘[Drexel] Coach [Bruiser] Flint always puts a team out there that defends and you can’t get on the floor unless you defend. Each and every one of his guys did the job for him tonight.’
For the game, the Huskies shot 38.5 percent while the Dragons shot 44.2 percent. Northeastern continued to shoot well from behind the arc, going 6-of-10 as a team.
The Dragons were led by guard Scott Rodgers, who finished with 17.
‘This might be a good lesson for us right now,’ Janning said. ‘We have to learn how to play with leads, keep our composure and keep playing throughout the whole game.’
Northeastern will look to get back on track when it hits the road Saturday to battle George Mason (16-7, 9-4 CAA) in Fairfax, Va. at noon. The Huskies will return home Wednesday when they welcome Georgia State to Matthews Arena. Game time is 7 p.m.