VESTAL, N.Y. – Northeastern University didn’t have an answer for Kevin Reed and the University of Maine didn’t have an answer for Marcus Barnes, so that left it up for someone else to tip the balance Sunday afternoon.

That someone was Shawn James, a freshman from Brooklyn, N.Y., who has given teams fits all season both offensively and defensively.

The 6-foot-9, 199-pound forward did just that against Maine in the America East conference tournament semifinals and proved to be a difference maker with 21 points, eight rebounds and five blocked shots in Northeastern’s 86-73 victory over Maine.

Of course, it doesn’t hurt that the second-seeded Huskies, now 21-8 as they move on to a championship date with top seed Vermont at Burlington, Vt., next Saturday, have another pretty darn good player in guard Jose Juan Barea.

As Barea has in all three of his collegiate seasons, NU’s NBA draft prospect was a thorn in the No. 6 Black Bears’ collective paw. The 6-foot, 170-pound junior from Puerto Rico flirted with the first triple-double in AE tourney history before finishing with 20 points, 11 assists and eight rebounds.

“Barea had a lot to do with the fact their big guys were effective today, but defensively, those guys are game-changers,” Maine coach Ted Woodward said, referring to James and sophomore forward Bennet Davis (12 rebounds, six points, two steals, two blocks). “We had good drives inside with good looks, but they came up with blocks on shots that could have changed the game for us.”

The teams played each other even over the game’s first 11 minutes, but then the Huskies mushed out to a 36-23 lead with 2:12 left via a 15-1 run sparked by three straight Barnes baskets. After a Joe Campbell put-back with 1:56 left snapped a seven-minute field-goal drought by 14-15 Maine, NU closed the first half and opened the second with a 16-6 run that pushed its lead to 52-31 with 16:24 to play.

Then Reed did his own real-life version of “Man on Fire”, canning seven hoops – six of them 3-pointers – to fuel a Bears rally in which they outscored NU 31-11 over the next 91/2 minutes.

“I just got in a rhythm. We got down and I really didn’t want to go home early,” said Reed, who tied an AE tourney record with seven 3-pointers in the game en route to 28 points. “I knew my teammates wouldn’t quit because we don’t know how to quit.”

The result of Reed’s record rampage was a one-point game with NU hanging on to a 63-62 lead with 6:59 left.

“When we had it back to one point, I thought we were in pretty good shape to get over the hump, but Northeastern didn’t quit,” Woodward said. “They came right back and made some key plays to extend the lead again.”

Barnes turned things around with back-to-back scores on a low-post drive and a fast-break layup sandwiched around two offensive foul calls on Maine. Barnes sparked an 11-0 NU run (en route to 27 points), but more importantly, the Huskies held Maine scoreless for 4 minutes and 15 seconds.

“I think we had to beat these guys twice tonight,” Barnes said. “When they cut it down to one, we had to sit down and play defense. ”

A Campbell 3-pointer with 2:49 left ended the drought, but it was too late for another Bears comeback as the revitalized Huskies scored the next eight points (four by James) to ice the game.

“It was a game of runs. We got down, but I knew we were gonna fight back,” Campbell said. “As far as energy, we had what it took. The guys on this team played incredibly hard and with tremendous heart.”

Campbell ended his college career with a double-double (15 points and 10 rebounds) and Ernest Turner had 10 points and five boards off the bench, but it wasn’t enough to offset 19 Maine turnovers (to NU’s eight) and a significant NU shooting advantage – 47.1 percent to 37.5 percent from the field. Maine outrebounded NU 45-43 overall.

“The thing about Maine is they’ve always bothered us because they’re a tough matchup for Shawn when they play small with Joe at the four spot because Shawn has to come out and guard, basically, a guard in Campbell,” said NU coach Ron Everhart. “So we get overextended and give up some 3’s. But on the back end, we make up for it because Shawn helped down low on Mark [Flavin] and made him take tougher shots, and he got some blocks that led to some fast breaks. I think that made the difference in the game.”

The Huskies also got 10 points from sophomore guard Bobby Kelly.

HUSKIES 86, BLACK BEARS 73

Maine (14-15) Northeastern (21-8)

Player G AG F AF TP Player G AG F AF TP

Dubois 1 3 2 2 4 B. Davis 2 10 6

Campbell 5 12 3 4 15 James 8 9 10 21

Flavin 3 11 0 0 6 Barnes 10 19 4 27

Reed 10 22 1 2 28 Barea 7 18 4 20

Markwood 2 5 0 0 5 Kelly 4 6 10

Turner 4 13 0 0 10 Martinez 1 2 2

Bruff 0 0 0 0 0 A. Davis 0 2 0

Hight 1 5 0 0 3 Cole 0 2 0 0

Ahvenniemi 1 1 0 0 2 Washington 0 0

Harknell 0 0 0 0 0

Totals 27 72 6 8 73 32 68 16 29 86

Maine 27 73

Northeastern 45 86

3-pt. goals ? Maine (13-30): Reed 7-14, Campbell 2-5, Turner 2-5, Hight 1-3, Markwood 1-3; Northeastern (6-22): Barnes 3-9, Barea 2-7, Kelly 1-1, B. Davis 0-2, Martinez 0-1, A. Davis 0-2