Baseball people like to say that a slumping hitter just needs one big hit to snap out of it.
On a night where Northeastern’s offense was slumping, they never found that big hit, struggling for all 40 minutes as they fell to Princeton, 70-57.
Northeastern didn’t score in the first four-plus minutes of this one, allowing the Tigers to open up a 6-0 lead. Seemingly out of answers already, head coach Bill Coen called on the little-used freshman guard Xavier Abreu at the 15:46 mark, looking for any spark to ignite a flagging offense.
It worked, to some degree; a Youri Fritz dunk tied things at 8-8 just moments later, but the tie would be as close as things got. A 16-4 run mostly marked by the Huskies’ inability to score allowed Princeton to take control, and when star Tigers guard Dalen Davis knocked home a layup in the latter stages of the half, it was 31-16. Two Northeastern layups slashed the deficit a bit, but any momentum was shot when freshman center Liam Koelsch missed two free throws just before the buzzer as the teams hit the break at 33-20.
The Huskies looked better in the second half, but simply couldn’t string together enough quality offensive possessions to gain much ground. It might’ve been a blowout without Abreu, who ended up pacing all scorers with a career-high 17 points. Abreu served as Northeastern’s offensive engine throughout the majority of the second half, but the freshman was active on both ends, notching three steals to pair with his scoring.
Abreu hit Northeastern’s first three of the evening with 2:11 to go, snapping an 0-14 spell that’d plagued them for the first 37-plus minutes. It cut the lead to 59-52, giving the Huskies an outside chance, but after Abreu’s fifth personal foul knocked him out, things started to unravel. Between guards Jack Stanton and Jackson Hicke and big man Jacob Huggins, the Tigers hit five unanswered free throws, and the rest was window dressing. Junior guard JB Frankel scored the final points of Northeastern’s evening with a wing three, and Princeton coasted to their third win of the season.
Between Abreu and Fritz, the Huskies had the game’s two top scorers, but it wasn’t enough to compete with a Tigers offense boasting four players in double digits. The game might’ve been even further out of reach if not for an injury to Davis, who was helped to the locker room with an ankle injury midway through the second half.
Thursday was a stark reminder of Northeastern’s youth and inexperience, a problem only made worse by the season-ending broken foot suffered by star guard LA Pratt. Luca Soroa Schaller, his replacement, had some bright moments, but was ultimately too passive in a game where he registered just four field goal attempts.
Northeastern will return to action on Saturday, when they take on Duquesne in Akron, Ohio. Tip is set for 4 p.m., with Jordan Walsh and Jacob Phillips on your call on WRBB 104.9 FM.
Jacob Phillips is the Sports Director for WRBB Sports. He’s been covering Northeastern athletics for over two years, focusing primarily on men’s basketball. Follow him on Twitter here and Instagram here. He also writes for Mid-Major Madness, and you can find his work here.