■ 30 January 2010 | 7:55 PM
Northeastern
BOSTON
Strange, coming to Beantown to escape the snow back in the 757.
Stranger still, seeing ODU's defense shredded llke some North End mozzarella.
Some things, you can just count on. It hardly ever snows in South Hampton Roads, as we all know. Another thing we all know is that ODU, the nation's stingiest team, doesn't give up 8 3-pointers and 42 points in a half.
And yet, while folks back home were getting pounded by Old Man Winter, the Monarchs were up here getting buried in a flurry of first-half treys.
When Northeastern's Nkem Ojougboh hit one as the half expired, it seemed it just might be the Huskies' night. Treys from guards Matt Janning and Chaisson Allen are to be expected. The 6-10 Ojougboh had not hit one in three years.
The Huskies "chewed up" (Keyon Carter's words) ODU's long, tentacled 3-2 zone. They also did a number on the 2-3. ODU scrapped back in the second half, trimming a 17-point lead to six. But they got no closer, in a 74-64 loss.
It snapped ODU's eight-game winning streak and knocked the Monarchs out of first place. They're now tied with the Huskies for second, at 9-2 in the CAA.
No disgrace in that. NU is a veteran team that would have a higher national profile had it not played an out-of-conference schedule that only a travel agent could love. The Huskies went on a month-long road swing, and took their lumps. They've won 12 of 13 now, though, led by Janning and Allen, who are likely the top backourt in the league.
The Huskies made more veteran plays when it counted.
"We had our chances," Carter said. "When a team is hitting shots like that, you've just got to weather the storm."
Sort of like the people back in South Hampton Roads.
-- Ed Miller
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Yes, Disgrace.
Quick look at the definition of disgrace: to humiliate by a superior showing, to cause to lose favor or standing. This loss at NU was certainly a disgraceful loss, which doesn't mean we don't like our Monarchs - but you got to call it as it is. NU had just lost to a team ODU creamed, and NU had lost via a creaming. ODU just came off a visibly subpar victory over GState, people can tell ODU wasn't at 100 percent and they certainly weren't there today. Everytime you'd see Finney (right at half before the shattering last second 3) blow a layup, or Lee go in strong and miss a layup, or Frank do the same, or Iliadis, Keyon clank a 3, Darius take a pass and just throw it right at a NU player (did it twice including one off a steal) it really makes the team look bad. This team has now lost to Mason and NU (top level teams, and with the rest of our schedule being pretty much top level teams) and I don't like all of what I see. They've got to chance how they practice and focus a little more on becoming an offensive force. Or you'll likely see a one and done in the CAA tourney and possibly the tournament after that.