Huskies double pleasure

So many things seemed to conspire against the Northeastern men's basketball team last night at Lavietes Pavilion.

First, there was a five-minute scoring drought in the second half in which Harvard whittled a 9-point NU lead to 1 with 5:30 to go. Then there was a turnover (one of a season-high 20) by junior guard Matt Janning with 31.1 seconds left that enabled Harvard to retain possession for a game-tying 3-pointer by Drew Housman, who made it 62-62. Then there was the right ankle Janning tweaked with about a minute left in overtime and the Huskies trailing, 66-64.

The Huskies, however, managed to overcome those obstacles in addition to a feisty Crimson crew to score a thrilling, 76-71 victory in double overtime. Janning, who entered 6 points shy of becoming the fourth-fastest player in school history to score 1,000 career points, easily reached that milestone by leading NU (5-4) with a game-high 21 points on 6-for-16 shooting (1 of 5 from the 3-point arc) and 8 for 8 from the foul line to help the Huskies win for the first time at Lavietes since 1999.

"We just kind of stuck with it," said Janning, who got support from Chaisson Allen (17 points). "We kind of lost focus there for a little bit with about five minutes left when we let them get back into it. We did a good job of coming back. We just kept our composure all game and fought for every basket that we had to get."

None were more hard fought, though, than those made by both squads in the final minute of regulation and the overtime sessions.

"I just thought it was an incredibly exciting college basketball game and both teams played extremely hard," said NU coach Bill Coen, whose team outrebounded Harvard (43-26) and hit 46 percent of its shots (29 for 63), 92 percent of its free throws (13 of 14), but only made 31.3 percent of its treys (5 of 16). "Both teams made winning plays and we were just fortunate to come up with enough winning shots to come away with the win."

The Huskies, who led 32-27 at halftime, squandered a 60-53 lead with 58.7 seconds left when Housman (13 points) cut it to 4 with a trey with 37.4 ticks left. Jeremy Lin, who led Harvard (4-3) with a team-high 18 points on 8-for-14 shooting, then followed with a trey of his own to cut it to 62-59 with 31.1 seconds left.

Housman then teammed with Max Kenyi to force Janning to cough up the ball on the baseline, which Lin hustled to scoop up for Harvard. Housman took a kick-out feed from Lin and knocked down a trey that tied it, 62-62, with 2.9 seconds left.

"Jeremy had been driving all night and they couldn't stay in front of him," Housman said. "I knew if I went behind him, they'd probably collapse [on him] and he did a good job of finding me."

NU had one last chance to win it in regulation but was thwarted when Doug Miller, who had just come off the bench to sub for freshman Peter Boehm, blocked Nkem Ojougboh underneath as the game lapsed into the first OT.

Ojougboh (11 points, 11 rebounds) atoned in OT, however, with a running hook with 2.8 seconds left that tied it, 66-66, and sent it to the second OT period. Manny Adako, who had 12 points and four rebounds, banked in a foul-line jumper, then tallied on a turnaround lane jumper on back-to-back possessions to lift NU to a 70-66 lead, which provided enough of a buffer to help the Huskies withstand a key-top trey by Boehm and a pretty righthanded scoop by Lin that twice pulled Harvard within 1 (70-69 and 72-71).