By Mack Krell
In their first ever matchup against the Eastern Michigan Eagles (4-5), the Northeastern Huskies (4-4) were lead to an 81-67 victory by guards Jordan Roland and Donnell Gresham Jr. Despite trailing 37-34 at the half and playing without 3 of their projected starters, Northeastern was able to win the second half and ultimately win their second game in a row.
By the first media timeout, Eastern Michigan lead jumped out to an early lead of 12-4 on the shoulder of 6’11’’ big man, Boubacar Toure. Toure scored 6 of his 10 points in the first 5 minutes of the game. The Eagles then continued to stretch their lead to 35-21 with 5:28 to go in the first half. Northeastern then went on an 11-0 run that included 5 points from Roland and 4 points from Anthony Green. This 11-0 run brought Northeastern to within 3 points at the half.
At halftime, Northeastern altered their offensive game plan by putting Tomas Murphy at the high post and this allowed Northeastern to be much more successful in the second half. Northeastern won the second half 47-30 behind the leadership of Roland and Gresham Jr. Roland scored 11 of his 24 points in the second half and Gresham had 14 of his 21 in the second half.
However, all of this was possible because of Murphy’s ability to do a little bit of everything for the Huskies. Speaking about Murphy, Coach Bill Coen said postgame, “He did a great job in the middle of the zone. Its not easy to play that spot, you have to have a little feel for it.” Murphy finished the game with 10 points, 7 assists, and 6 rebounds.
Northeastern ultimately walked away with a victory despite missing 3 of their starters for the whole game, and Bolden Brace only being able to play 9 minutes in the game. Coen was very pleased with his teams’ effort despite being short handed. He said postgame, “Everybody stepped up in the shorthanded situation and rose to the occasion against a very difficult style of play to compete against.”
Northeastern travels to Syracuse, New York on Wednesday to take on the Orange at 7:00 PM. Matt MacCormack, Justin Littman, and Mike Petillo will be on the call for WRBB Sports.