Northeastern Holds Off VCU in Year’s Best Game

It was as if it were a set up in advance for Virginia Commonwealth, with its returning CAA Player of the Year now a senior, leading the league in assists and 5 points ahead of the second best scorer.  And as Andy Katz of ESPN has pointed out more than once, it isn’t just in the Big East (and in Big Ten football) that schedules are unbalanced, and often grossly unfair.  For the moment the twelve team CAA has determined not to split into two divisions, supposedly because all the Virginia rivals want to play one another twice (yet oddly, VCU and George Mason just play once).  This year, of all years, with Northeastern playing its best since the Calhoun era and Jim Larranaga having reloaded at Mason, league flagship VCU just plays each of those schools once, and in both cases at the Siegel Center in Richmond.  (Yes, both are returns of singletons played last year in Boston and Fairfax).  And the schedule:  VCU at home for a second straight game and third in four, awaiting Northeastern on the back end of an ODU-VCU Virginia swing, which followed a home game against Mason.  And readers of this space know how I feel about second games away from home, when the traveling team won the first:  those games are nearly impossible to win.  So, I suspect that if I’d inspected this scheduling with greater care, I wouldn’t have picked Northeastern to win the CAA regular season (as far as I know, only this writer and Andy Katz picked the Huskies).

And it was an absolute war, replete with terrific offense, equally good defense, two monstrous VCU comebacks, tons of fouls, and a bench-clearing skirmish with two minutes to go.  All in front of a national television audience on ESPNU.  Perhaps the most important single thing in the game took place in the first 15 seconds (way before the network switched to Richmond from an overtime game in Raleigh):  VCU’s monster sophomore center Larry Sanders committed a personal foul.  Sanders having been hampered by fouls throughout his young career-he had two by the six minute mark of the ODU game we covered a week and a half ago-Coach Grant decided to remove him with just one, and by the time the network joined a 4-4 game at the 3:30 mark, Sanders had a seat on the VCU bench.  Over the next ten minutes, with Sanders out of the game, Northeastern outscored VCU 22-9, to lead 26-13.  Even when Sanders reentered the Husky onslaught continued, and a Chris Alvarez free throw at the 15:25 mark capped a 7-0 NU run giving the Huskies their biggest lead at 30-13.  Like most good things accomplished by Northeastern, the run to that 17-point lead was lead by star junior Matt Janning, who had two big treys and 10 of Northeastern’s first 30 points.  Less predictably, the “other Matt” on the Husky squad, Matt Smith, playing the best basketball of his career as a senior, played 13 big minutes in the first half, contributing 8 of those first 30 on 3-3 shooting, two from the arc.  He also added a crucial rebound at each end of the floor, and a gorgeous no-look bounce pass assist to Nkem Ojougboh from the lane to the baseline on a possession during which VCU played zone.

But more than anyone’s offensive contribution, Northeastern played stellar defense during that run, really for most of the game.  Bill Coen switched back and forth between two not-so-different defenses all night long, a man-to-man and a match-up zone, and it appeared to this writer (watching on television in snowy Cleveland) that VCU didn’t always properly identify which defense they were attacking.  Well, the combination of that defense and the Huskies’ fine shooting in those first 15:25 resulted in 9-18 by the Huskies, including 5-9 from the arc, and 6-21 for VCU, including 1-5 from the arc.

But then, it all turned around in a flash.  For the last 4½ minutes of the half, led by Eric Maynor VCU ratcheted up the defensive pressure, turned Northeastern over, got out in transition, shot and rebounded, and a furious 17-4 run cut Northeastern’s lead from 17 to 4, 34-30 at the intermission.  During that stretch the Rams forced four Husky turnovers, turning them into 8 points.  VCU also outrebounded the Huskies in that stretch 4-1.  And finally in rhythm, the Rams shot 6-7, including 3-3 from the arc;  budding freshman star guard Brandon Rozzell from Richmond was a big part of the run, hitting all three of his jumpers, two from behind the arc.  (Rozzell would finish the night with a new personal high of 16 on 6-12 shooting, including 4-7 from the arc, and 5 boards).  Halftime couldn’t come quick enough for the Huskies.

I don’t know exactly what Bill Coen said to his Huskies at halftime (on this snowy day in the northeast, and with the Huskies in transit, I haven’t been able to reach Coach).  But whatever it was, it worked, and in this writer’s opinion, Northeastern won this game in the first 4½ minutes after halftime, opening the second stanza on a 15-3 run, thus reclaiming all but a single point of their first half 17-point lead, at 49-33.  In that stretch to start the half, oddly VCU came out in zone, likely to protect its players from mounting foul difficulties (power forward Kirill Pishchalnikov had 2 fouls at intermission, as did guard Bradford Burgess, and freshman power forward Terrance Saintil had 3, but Sanders had only one).  Gifted some needed relief from the relentless pressure that had turned the game around earlier, Northeastern regained control of the pace, and the game, and resumed its effective half-court defense that stifled VCU much of the night.  In that 15-3 run, Northeastern hit 6 of its 8 shots, including 2-2 by junior center Manny Adako and 2-3 from the arc by senior swingman Eugene Spates.

Then, from the 4:22 mark right through the end of the game, VCU resumed its pressure, and the game became a wonderful battle of wills between two teams and two coaches.  And oh yes, for stretches, brilliant Eric Maynor took over the game, sometimes single-handedly keeping the Rams in the game.  Maynor would have 18 of his game high 30 in the second half, and showed uncanny ability to get to the goal.  But in all, his 30 points required 26 shots, and Maynor shot just 10-26 for the game, 2-7 from the arc.  Northeastern’s Chaisse Allen did much of that fine defensive work when Northeastern was in man-to-man (reserve Baptiste Bataille did some), and in both man-to-man and zone forwards Nkem Ojougboh and Chris Alvarez were strong on screens and in doubling Maynor.

Led by Maynor, VCU chipped away, and then chipped away some more, slicing the lead to 6 at the 13:26 mark, then to 4 on a Maynor drive at 17:51.  Maynor was fouled on the play by Janning, ended up straddling Janning who had gone down on the baseline, and may have said something off-putting and remained above Janning a bit longer than he might have.  Manny Adako reacted to that perceived threat by pushing Maynor, and then bedlam ensued as players and coaches stormed the floor.  No punches were thrown (though VCU’s Burgess Bradford must have done or said something bad).  In the end, Adako and Burgess were each assessed matching technicals (neither being shot), and Maynor sank the free throw awarded on Janning’s foul for a three point-play, drawing VCU within three.  Then in an intense last two minutes and five seconds, the teams combined shooting 15 free throws, Northeastern found its stride at the line to hit 8-10 (Bataille was 4-4), and VCU never got closer than down two.  In one possession in the last 40 seconds, both Nkem Ojougboh and Chris Alvarez blocked VCU shots, and the Huskies held on for a hard-fought well-earned 68-63 win.  The eight Huskies who played put up balanced numbers, with Spates and Adako leading the way with 12 (Adako on 6-9 shooting, Spates with 4 treys), Janning adding 11 along with 7 boards, and Alvarez adding 8 huge rebounds.  Chaisse Allen scored 9 on 2-5 shooting (including a critical late trey), had 4 boards, 2 assists, just 3 turnovers, and made Maynor work for everything he got.

From 400+ miles away, this writer expected good play at both ends from Janning, Allen and Adako.  What wasn’t as expected, what Coach Bill Coen and his staff should be immensely proud of, is the improved play of Eugene Spates and Chris Alvarez at the 3-spot during their senior seasons, of junior Baptiste Bataille at back-up point, and particularly of senior Matt Smith as a reserve swingman.  It was the strong play of these four that put Northeastern over the top this night, giving them this crucial victory.

Northeastern News and Notes:

• For now, 9-1 Northeastern has a full game lead plus the head-to-head tiebreakers over 8-2 VCU and George Mason, tied for second.  Mason will have a chance to make up both that game and that tiebreaker when they host Northeastern on Valentine’s Day in Fairfax.
• Without speaking to him, I know Bill Coen well enough that the mantra this week will be that the VCU win doesn’t mean anything if the Huskies don’t take care of business Saturday at home against Delaware.  Fatigued both physically and mentally from the last three games, and certainly travel-weary, the Huskies will need to play just as hard against Delaware on Saturday if they want to stay atop the CAA.
• I’m not as close as I used to be, but I expect not a word was spoken by Bill Coen or his staff about the unequal schedule, either before or after the game.  But now that Northeastern has beaten VCU in Richmond, isn’t it a wonderful thing for the Huskies that they aren’t playing the Rams back in Boston, a rematch VCU would be entirely capable of winning?  All of a sudden, the schedule doesn’t look quite so bad.
• Lastly, while there are miles to go from here to there, look for coverage in this space of the forthcoming February 14 rematch between Northeastern and George Mason.  And I think we’ll just have to cover that game in person.