NU drives point home to UMaine for seventh win Bears unguarded as Huskies rally

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ORONO – John Giannini will tell you that there are plenty of things his University of Maine men’s basketball team possesses that he loves.

He’s got a versatile guard in Errick Greene. He’s got a 7-foot shot-snuffer in Justin Rowe. He’s got game, hard-working players who like each other.

But after Northeastern’s frantic, wall-to-wall defensive pressure – and a 17-4 game-ending spurt – paved the way to a 70-63 win over the Black Bears on Thursday night, Giannini focused on what his team lacks.

“We need that jet, pure point guard, and darn it, we’re gonna get one,” Giannini said. “This game just drives the nail through the point for me. We need a point guard in the worst way. We were not equipped to play against that team. We couldn’t run an offense. We couldn’t make a pass.”

Maine drops to 10-16, 7-8 in America East play with one game (Sunday at Boston University) remaining. Northeastern improves to 7-20, 5-11. Included in their losses are eight by three points or less.

The Huskies hounded UMaine into 24 turnovers and scored 30 of their points on the ensuing possessions, and used their own point guard’s quickness to score key hoops down the stretch.

Junior point guard Jamar Walker was the catalyst, as the Huskies let him scrape his defender off high picks that allowed him to get around the corner and create opportunities when Maine’s 7-footer, Justin Rowe, stepped in to help.

Tim West scored three hoops over the game’s final 3:16, two on feeds from Walker. Walker finished with nine points and eight assists. Senior Jean Bain added 15 points while Tim West scored 12 and Jesse Dunn had 11.

Maine’s Rickey White posted a career-high for points (17) and matched his career-high for rebounds (13). Rowe added 21 points, eight rebounds and seven blocks, and the Black Bears shot a gaudy 55.6 percent from the floor in the game.

But their inability to take care of the ball negated that shooting effort.

“We’re a team that, to be successful, we have to play up-tempo, we have to create turnovers, we have to get the game going fast,” Northeastern coach Ron Everhart said. “I thought, at least in the last three minutes or so of the game, we got the game in our favor and got that kind of tempo out of it.”

Maine trailed just 66-63 when Greene converted a Rowe feed with 51 seconds to play. But after the Bears got the stop they needed on a White steal as the shot clock ran down, Northeastern seized the momentum back when Bain darted in front of a streaking Greene and stole White’s outlet pass.

Maine fould him with 13.6 seconds to play, then made both free throws to make it 68-63.

“I really didn’t see Jean there,” White said. “So I just whipped the ball really quick. I thought he could have got to it, but Jean got there and intercepted the ball. I was just thinking we could push the ball up the court and get a quick hoop, and then get back on ‘D.”‘

Giannini repeatedly emphasized his team’s needs … and how good a player would have to be to help the Bears next year.

“I’m getting a lot of phone calls,” Giannini said. “Unless a kid is jet-quick and one of the quickest players in America East, they can’t help us.”

HUSKIES 70, BLACK BEARS 63

Northeastern (7-20) Maine (10-16)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG AF TP

Davis 0 5 0 0 0 Tibbetts 0 0

Dunn 4 9 0 0 11 Croom 1 1 0 2

West 6 13 0 2 12 Jackson 2 4 4 8

Bain 4 8 6 8 15 Greene 3 10 2 8

Walker 4 9 1 1 9 White 7 11 17

Hancock 1 5 0 0 3 Campbell 2 5

Nlandu 0 1 0 0 0 Brown 0 2 2

Brittian 1 3 1 2 3 Rowe 10 14 21

Cranford 6 10 3 4 16

Randall 0 0 1 2 1

Burke-Bennett 0 3 0 2 0

Totals 26 66 10 18 70 25 45 12 21 63

Northeastern 30 70

Maine 27 63

3-pt. goals: Northeastern (8-18) Dunn 3-4, Cranford 3-4, Bain 1-2, Hancock 1-3, Davis 0-3, Burke Bennett 0-1, Brittain 0-1; Maine (1-5) Campbell 1-1, Brown 0-2, Greene 0-1, Tibbetts 0-1

Attendance: 1,482