Northeastern Owns VCU
The Huskies tied the third-longest winning streak in school history with a 74-62 victory over Virginia Commonwealth at Matthews Arena on Saturday afternoon.
The Huskies controlled a 35-31 halftime lead and extended it to 49-41 on an Ojougboh jumper with 12:53 to go, VCU rallied to pull within 53-50 on a putback by Sanders with 9:38 left but Chaison Allen answered for the Huskies, knocking down a 3-pointer that sparked a decisive 11-2 run.
NU (13-7, 8-1 Colonial Athletic Association) remained in a first-place tie with George Mason in the league standings, getting double-digit production from four of its starters.
Nkem Ojougboh led the Huskies with 18 points. He also had seven rebounds. Junior guard Chaisson Allen had 16 points to go with six boards, while senior Matt Janning had 15 points and eight boards and Manny Adako contributing 12 points.
Larry Sanders lead the way for the Rams with 22 points and 10 rebounds. Six of his rebounds came at the offensive end, and the Rams led the Huskies 15-4 in offensive rebounds, but they could not convert those extra chances into meaningful points.
Northeastern shot 58.5 percent (24-for-41) from the field and held Virginia Commonwealth's to just 37.9 percent (22-for-58).
Sophmore Jamie Skeen was just 2 of 8 from field with 6 points and junior Joey Rodriguez was 3 of 13 from the field with 9 points.
Northeastern has won 11 consecutive games overall, the third longest active streak in the country. With a 62-57 victory three weeks ago, the Huskies became the first team to sweep VCU in the regular season since 2005-06.
The Rams have dropped three straight to Northeastern and there bid for a fourth consecutive regular-season CAA title has most likely ended.
At the halfway point of the CAA schedule, VCU (5-4, 13-5) is three games behind Northeastern (8-1, 13-7), and fell to sixth in the league behind Drexel.
The Rams will have to refocus and look to finish in the top four so they can get a first-round bye in the CAA tournament.
The Rams the next game will be at home against the Tigers of Towson University on Wednesday evening for a 7:30 p.m. contest.
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