By Michael Petillo
BOSTON — Coming off a disappointing overtime loss to UNCW on Saturday, Northeastern returned to Matthews Arena Thursday night badly needing a bounce-back win. They got it against Drexel, soundly defeating the Dragons 85–52 in a game that was never in doubt. Jordan Roland led the scoring charge for the Huskies as usual, netting 26 points in just 28 minutes of action.
From the jump, it was clear that it was going to be the Huskies’ night. Drexel (12–9, 5–3 CAA) got on the board first, but Northeastern (11–9, 5–3 CAA) reeled off 18 unanswered points keyed by several Roland jumpers. When the halftime buzzer sounded, Roland had scored as many points (17) as the entire Drexel team.
Bolden Brace also came up big on offense, scoring 14 of his 17 points in the opening half and helping his team push the lead to 32 points at the break. The senior swingman was coming off arguably his most disappointing effort of the season against UNCW — he took just one shot — and his impact was much needed.
“We got together as a team at the beginning of the week and talked about what we can be,” Brace said. “I know we were all disappointed with the results on Saturday.”
The second half was more of the same, with Northeastern maintaining a lead of at least 30 while smothering Drexel on defense. They forced Drexel’s best perimeter players, Camren Wynter and Zach Walton, into a combined ten turnovers. Wynter, the conference’s fourth-leading scorer, was limited to just six points on 3–12 shooting; Walton was scoreless.
“We challenged our guys to step it up on the defensive end,” Northeastern head coach Bill Coen said. “I think they bought into that.”
The blowout win allowed Coen to rest Roland, Brace, and some of his other starters for most of the second half. The Huskies have a noon tip against Delaware on Saturday, making that extra rest even more important. Michael Petillo and Milton Posner will be on the call, with coverage beginning fifteen minutes before tipoff.
Saturday’s game is the annual Coaches Against Cancer game; coaches will wear suits and sneakers in an effort to raise awareness and money to fight cancer.
“I’m hoping everybody will come out and support us,” Coen implored. “For every student that comes to the game on Saturday, I pledge a dollar to the American Cancer Society. I hope they come out and cost me $5,000 because it’s a great day to partner with our student body against this deadly enemy.”