Huskies avoid turnovers, but still fall 88-59 to NC State
What happened?
The ugliness of basketball that was on display at Louisiana Tech’s Thomas Assembly Center on Tuesday night stayed in Ruston, Louisiana, but the result wasn’t much prettier for Northeastern.
After about two minutes, the Huskies were still in the game with the score tied 5-5. To that point, each team had traded a two-pointer for a two-pointer, then a triple for a trey. Quincy Ford and Reggie Spencer had each recorded a block, and they were keeping up with the Wolfpack’s pace. Then, NC State went on an 11-0 run, making it 16-5, that lasted nearly three and a half minutes and never looked back. Two baskets later, it was back within seven for NU, but that’s the closest they would get. At halftime, it was 38-25.
The first three points of the second half went to the Huskies on Joel Smith’s 3-pointer, but the ‘Pack followed that with another 10-0 run to push their lead to 48-30. As late as 8:37 to go, it was a 15-point difference, but NC State gave themselves a 26-point advantage before a batch of substitutions that took all of the starters for both teams out of the game for the final two minutes of play. After that point, it was all offense as the team combined for 14 points in that time. The Wolfpack bench won that frame, 8-6, and pushed the team’s lead out to a game-high 30 before finally coming away with the 29-point victory.
Player of the Game:
It’s hard to really come up with a player of the game for Northeastern. Though the team didn’t play poorly, the limited offensive attack was fairly well-balanced and the defense wasn’t really there. Strictly by the numbers, Jon Lee would be the one to earn the honors after tying Joel Smith with a team-high 15 points. He also pulled down 6 rebounds, 2nd-most on the team to Quincy Ford (10). Lee made 7 of his 12 shots, including 1 of 3 from long distance.
The Wolfpack also came out with a balanced attack, making it difficult for the Huskies to key in on one or two players defensively. Richard Howell posted a double-double with 14 points and 12 rebounds, almost exclusively in the paint. C.J. Leslie helped him out in the post, matching Lorenzo Brown’s 16 points for a game-high. Leslie also had 8 boards.
The Takeaway:
North Carolina State was clearly the better team on the floor. Their size, length and athleticism along with their well-coached raw talent were too much for Northeastern to handle. Despite the 29-point loss, the Huskies actually played better than in the 3-point loss on Tuesday when they led for most of the game, including 19 minutes in the second half. It was the sixth straight loss, marking the third consecutive year that saw a losing streak of at least five games from late November into December. Last season, the final loss of the streak came in Cancun on December 22 – the same date as this game in Raleigh. The year before, it was on December 23 in Hawai’i.
Turnovers, or the lack thereof, was a definite positive for Bill Coen and his team. After five straight game in which they turned the ball over at least 20 times, Northeastern gave it back to their opponent only 10 times on Thursday to match a season-low (also at St. John’s, 11/26). Before getting too excited about that, though, remember that three of those turnovers came in the first four minutes. At that point, NC State already had a comfortable lead and there was never any need for them to put on pressure to force turnovers. The Wolfpack also does not typically force all that many turnovers, so while it jumps off the scoresheet as something to be happy with, NU needs to show that they can hold onto the ball in a few more games to show consistency before believing the problem is solved.
Along with Howell and Leslie, the constant threat of Scott Wood and, at times, Alex Johnson, as distance shooters on the floor kept the Huskies from being too aggressive down low. As a result, the rebounding suffered and North Carolina State won the battle of the boards, 41-28, the largest margin against Northeastern so far this season. Northeastern took advantage of long bounces on their missed three-point shots, which there were 14 of, and picked those rebounds up near the perimeter. They weren’t very aggressive going after loose balls under the basket, seemingly because they were afraid that if NC State was able to pick it up, they would be much faster in transition and would be able to take advantage of an empty backcourt if the Huskies didn’t hustle back on defense after missed shots.
Finally, the team’s shooting percentage has been well below average over the past two games. On Tuesday, both teams complained about the ball not being completely round, and on Thursday, they were simply playing against a defense that didn’t allow many good shots. The reportedly misshapen ball also affected free throw shooting on Tuesday, when Northeastern shot just 43% from the line. In Raleigh, however, the team was back to a much better 82% at the charity stripe. There are reasonable explanations for each of those games, but it’s something worth pointing out and keeping an eye on over the next few games.
Quote of Note:
Bill Coen, on the team’s balanced scoring: “We moved the ball a little bit better tonight…I thought we did execute and we took better care of the basketball than we have been doing.”
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What happened?
After a big 2-1 victory, Jim Madigan gave us his thoughts on the game and stressed the need to carry this momentum into league play.
What happened?
