Huskies act fast, cruise into CAA final
NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. — The first two meetings between Northeastern and UNC Wilmington needed overtime before the Huskies prevailed. Last night, NU decided things much earlier.
Behind a crisp offensive attack, second-seeded Northeastern took a double-digit lead in the first half and never looked back on the way to a 79-52 win over the sixth-seeded Seahawks in the semifinals of the CAA Tournament. The Huskies will get top-seeded Charleston tonight in the championship for a spot in the NCAA tournament.
“I think we’ve been talking about defense and rebound in our meetings and in our preparation a lot, especially when you’re going against a team that rebounds the ball as well as UNCW, and I thought (last night) we answered the bell,” Northeastern coach Bill Coen said.
Early on, the Seahawks (11-21) appeared to have rekindled the magic that carried them to an upset over No. 3 Hofstra the night before, taking a 16-12 lead early. NU (23-9) responded by going on a 20-1 run.
Jordon Talley, the hero of Sunday’s game with a CAA Tournament-record 37 points, hit a 3-pointer just before the halftime buzzer to pull the Seahawks within 36-27 at the break.
After that, it was all Huskies. “I think that’s what we’ve been doing the whole year. We’re a calm team. We know that if we can guard and rebound we’ll come out with a win. And we didn’t panic. That’s the No. 1 thing,” Northeastern guard Vasa Pusica said.
NU clamped down on defense, holding UNCW without a point for more than six minutes during a stretch in the second half. The end result was UNCW scoring the fewest points it has in a game all season. The Seahawks also shot under 30 percent for the game.
Shawn Occeus, the reigning CAA Defensive Player of the Year, clamped down on Talley. After his explosive quarterfinal, the UNCW senior was held to just six points on 2-of-12 shooting.
“Anytime you see the person you’re going to match up against the night before go off, it juices you up a little bit and it for juiced me up to go out (last night) and just play hard and make it hard for him on the offensive end,” Occeus said.
While the NU defense shut down the Seahawks, the offense broke them down. The Huskies recorded 18 assists on 30 baskets while shooting 46.9 percent for the game, including 55.6 percent in the second half. Pusica led the charge with 20 points while Occeus added 18.
Northeastern now faces a Charleston squad eager to win its first CAA title in front of a home crowd. The Cougars swept the regular season with a 82-66 win in Charleston and a 69-64 victory at NU’s Matthews Arena.
Tonight, NU has a chance to realize a dream of its own.
“Coach talks about staying in the moment so right now we’re just staying in the moment, taking it game-by-game and we know (tonight’s) a big game but we just want to focus in on the bad things we did (last night), the good things we did (last night) to improve and go into (tonight) and have our best game,” Occeus said.