Huskies Turn up Defense, Take Out Talented Panthers
BOSTON – It’s easy to think Wednesday night’s 84-69 victory by Northeastern over Georgia State was a tale of two halves. In some sense, it was: the Huskies played no defense in the first half and stifled the Panthers in the second half. But there was a little more to the game than that.
Both teams came into the game at 1-3 in CAA play. Neither projects to finish in the top half of the conference this season; the Huskies have a short rotation and the Panthers have an inexperienced but talented backcourt. For each team, there was something evident in this game. The Huskies continue to look like a well-coached team, while the Panthers’ talent is as evident as the inconsistency that tends to come with having a backcourt as green as theirs is.
In the first half, it was all Georgia State, as the Panthers shot 61.5 percent from the field and made it look easy. There were several trips down the floor where the Panthers had a wide-open jumper (they made seven of eight from behind the three-point line in the opening frame) or an almost uncontested shot close to the basket. While the field goal percentage statistics would jump out at many, Northeastern head coach Bill Coen noticed something else.
“I think we had six fouls and they shot 62 percent and 87 percent from three,” Coen said. “That just tells us that you’re not playing hard enough.”
Everything changed in the second half, where the Huskies started on a 25-5 run to take the lead for good. The Huskies got up on the ball-handlers and forced them to make plays. They were physical inside. They played the passing lanes well, especially freshman Matt Janning, who had a stretch where he seemingly made a play every trip on defense. The highlight of the game was a play where he poked the ball loose, then dove around mid-court and recovered it before being tied up for a jump ball. That got the crowd going, and seemed to fire up his teammates even more.
“For me, that was the biggest play of the game when he dove for the ball,” said senior guard Adrian Martinez, who had 16 points and four assists.
And as if that wasn’t enough, the exclamation point came when Bennet Davis drove from the right wing to the hoop for a hard dunk that was followed by a little celebration to further fire up the crowd. With that, the comeback was complete: the Huskies had staged a 29-point turnaround in the second half to win going away.
“We decided to just get up in them and contest shots. That’s what changed the game,” said Davis, who finished with 21 points and eight rebounds.
The Panthers showed signs of frustration, especially leading scorer Lance Perique. One of the most improved players in the CAA thus far, Perique finished with a game-high 23 points, but slowed down in the second half considerably as he was just 2-9 from the field after the break. When called for a foul with 4:09 left, he showed his frustration by swinging his arm, and in the process he made contact with Northeastern’s Adrian Martinez. He surely didn’t mean to hit Martinez – he probably had no idea Martinez was even nearby as he wasn’t facing him beforehand, caught him on the backswing and there wasn’t much contact – but just swinging his arm to show his displeasure with the call earned him a technical foul. It could also get him in trouble with the conference office, which is to be determined.
The Huskies simply played solid basketball in the second half. Their defense may have turned the game around, but they continue to show how much they have bought into the importance of ball movement at the offensive end. There were a number of times where they made several passes in quick succession that led to an easy basket or a wide-open shot that went down, something even the successful teams of recent seasons was never very consistent with. It showed in that they shot over 58 percent from the field and had just three turnovers.
Lost in it all is the effort of Bobby Kelly, who quietly led the way with 22 points. The senior guard has had some struggles at times, but is among the nation’s leaders in minutes and comes to play every game. He seems to be finding a niche more and more in addition to being one of the team’s leaders.
Georgia State got 12 points and 11 rebounds from sophomore Rashad Chase and 13 points from Leonard Mendez. They are two of the team’s main building blocks, and although the numbers were respectable, you almost got the sense that they were invisible for stretches of the game. Chase has the talent to be one of the conference’s top players before his career is all said and done, and Mendez is their most experienced guard at the Division I level. The talent is apparent in players like Ron Larris, Ryan McBride and Trae Goldston, but all three are still relatively new to Division I.
“We need more consistency out of our guard play,” said head coach Michael Perry. “Every night in this league, it’s a war. In order to get separation, you need good guard play.”
Not helping the Panthers is Deven Dickerson continuing to battle tendonitis in his knee. The junior center didn’t play on Wednesday and has been limited all year, which was expected heading into the season. Perry said this wasn’t an ideal game for him to play, and Dickerson has also battled asthma attacks recently.
Wednesday night’s game showed something about both teams. It didn’t end as positively for the Panthers as it did for the Huskies, but with their talent some positive endings may be coming before very long.
