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Junior Joel Smith (above), who finished with a team-high 20 points on the night, hit the game-winning shot for Northeastern to allow the Huskies to escape with a 62-61 victory over visiting CAA rival Delaware. The game-winning shot was the second of its kind for Smith this season as he hit a game winner as time expired earlier this season at Vermont.

by Joseph Kuykendall

BOSTON, Mass.— Wednesday night last week, Northeastern had just gotten a big win against fellow CAA team Georgia State and was sitting pretty at 5-2 in the CAA most likely a surprise to not only the other teams in the conference but to also the Northeastern players.  They were sitting pretty tied for third in the very competitive CAA.

Then, as all coaches and smart college basketball fans know, a season can turn around in the snap of the fingers. After their game last Wednesday, Northeastern departed for Philadelphia on Friday to take on Drexel on Saturday and then Old Dominion on Monday; the preseason number one and number 4 team in the CAA respectively.

The road trip turned out how it looked on paper, both the Dragons and Monarchs handled the Huskies pretty well to put them at 5-4 in CAA play and needing another win badly.

NU welcomed Delaware to Boston in hope of beating the Blue Hens to stay above the .500 mark. Delaware also had a 5-4 mark and the two teams were the only ones tied with that record which was good enough for sixth place in the conference.

Both teams played Saturday and Monday so this was their third game in just five days. The start of the game showed that. Sloppy play on both sides of the ball for both teams and this led to a score of just 6-6 all the way up to the 10:36 mark of the first half. Northeastern Head Coach Bill Coen credits the poor start to all the games, “We’re in a marathon stretch of league games where you’re playing almost every other night with travel and everything else,” said the excited coach, “I felt both teams were sluggish and mishandled the ball early and I think that’s a tribute to the schedule these kids have been through over the last week.”

Despite the poor start and trailing late, Northeastern somehow found a way to win thanks to a 19-foot jumper from the junior leader Joel Smith with 1.1 seconds left to give the Huskies a 62-61 victory that would hold through until the end.

The game winning jumper accounted for two of Smith’s team high 20 points which is well above his season average of 11.5 ppg. Smith spoke of the shot after the game, “Coach drew up the play and Wayne made a great pass, Reggie got me wide open, I just had to do the rest. It was a great team effort and the shot went in.”

Following the rough start in the game things turned around to close out the first half. As the clock wound down, no team got a lead bigger than four points and NU was the one with the four point lead following to Bigby free throws.

But Delaware would battle back to tie it back up just a minute later and the game would head to the break as a tie ball game as well.

The second half started out and played out much cleaner than the first half did. Shots began to fall for both teams. For example, in the first half, NU shot 2-for-5 from three-point range and then in the second half, shot 5-of-9.

Fast forwarding now…Northeastern held a 53-52 lead with five minutes to go. This would be the last lead for Northeastern until they took the lead for good with 1.1 seconds remaining in the game.

With 57 seconds left, Delaware’s sophomore guard Devon Saddler nailed a three to put the Blue Hens up by five and under a minute to play. At this point the game seemed like a lost cause for the Huskies but they would not give up.

On their ensuing possession, Northeastern’s other junior leader Jonathan Lee knocked down two crucial free throws to cut the Delaware lead to three points.

As Delaware inbounded the ball shortly after, the Huskies forced a turnover which made the idea of winning a reality for Northeastern.

Quincy Ford badly missed a game-tying 3-pointer attempt short but Kauri Black was there to pick it up and get fouled on the put back attempt. Although just a 47.7% free throw shooter entering the contest, Black found a way to knock down both and put Northeastern within one point.

On Delaware’s next inbound play, they were able to get the ball in and Northeastern had to foul Saddler who entered the game as an 80.4% FT shooter on the season. Luckily for Northeastern he missed the front end of the one-and-one which set Northeastern up with the ball, and 5.7 second left. In a timeout, Coach Coen drew up a play that left Smith wide open to knock down the jumper and give Northeastern the lead for good.

Northeastern obviously escaped with the win but Coen did not give credit to just one player, “Everybody had a hand in it, Kauri [Black] made some big free throws, Quincy Ford made a big three-point shot to help us down the stretch, Jon [Lee] came up with a couple of steals and free throws, and then Joel [Smith] made a big, big shot at the buzzer,” said the sixth-year coach, “Overall I thought it was a team effort, Reggie Spencer had a terrific night for a freshman.”

In terms of the big shot, Coen had this to say about those who helped to get the wide open look for Smith, “Everybody knows the guy who made the shot but Alwayne Bigby threw a great pass and Reggie [Spencer] set a great screen. It needed all those elements for the outcome to come…to finish as it did.”

Northeastern looks to continue to stay comfortably ahead of .500 as at 6-4 they are currently tied for fifth in the CAA with Georgia State and is 2-games out of the 4^th spot in the CAA standings which would give them a first round bye in the CAA tournament.

Northeastern welcomes a struggling Hofstra squad who sits second-to-last in the CAA with a league record of 1-9 to Matthews Arena on Saturday. The Huskies already took care of the Pride on January 11^th beating them 64-62 on Long Island.

A win-is-a-win in league play but even Coach Coen knew that Northeastern was lucky enough to escape with a win on Wednesday night, “We were very very fortunate to get a win this evening.”

Kuykendall can be followed on Twitter @JoeKBSU18 and contacted at JKuykendall@BostonSportsU18.com