Huskies hold off Rams 68-63

Virginia Commonwealth's basketball team has been all but impervious to losing in the Siegel Center during the three-year tenure of coach Anthony Grant.

Only two rival Colonial Athletic Association teams have been able to walk out of VCU's Broad Street home with victories.

Northeastern became one of them last night.

In a physical game that featured 48 fouls and included a late shoving match between the teams, the Northeastern Huskies used an aggressive defense, excellent 3-point shooting and free throws to hold off a late charge by the VCU Rams and grab sole possession of first place with a hard-fought 68-63 victory.

VCU is 21-2 at home against the CAA under Grant. Old Dominion owns the other win, 67-66 last season. The Rams are 33-5 at home overall under Grant.

This loss was a significant blow to VCU's bid to win its third straight regular-season crown.

The Rams (8-2, 15-6) dropped a game behind Northeastern (9-1, 14-6) and handed the Huskies what is effectively a two-game lead with eight conference games remaining.

Northeastern now owns the seeding tiebreaker with VCU if the two deadlock in the standings. The Rams and Huskies do not meet again during the regular season because of the CAA's unbalanced

schedule.

"This doesn't change anything for us," Grant said. "It's one game. Obviously, Northeastern's in first place. Our goal is to be in first place. The only thing we can control is what happens going forward for us. We've got to make sure we get prepared and get ready for the next challenge."

The Rams trailed by 17 in the first half and 16 in the second as Northeastern, at times, was able to keep the game at a moderate pace.

The Huskies hit 9 of 15 3-pointers.

"Their style won out today," Grant said. "We didn't cover the way we needed to."

Said Northeastern coach Bill Coen: "Uncharacteristic of us, we were able to make some 3s. That gave us a cushion in the first half. From there on we were victimized by the best player in this league, Eric Maynor. We had all we could do to try to contain him. If the game was two minutes longer, he would have found a way to win."

Maynor, challenged by the Huskies on every foray into the lane and double-teamed on high screens, finished with 30 points but was only 10 of 26 from the floor.

Twice VCU got within two points in the final two minutes. The Rams had a chance to tie with 15 seconds left.

That's normally Maynor's time to shine. But this time he launched a 3-pointer from about 28-foot that bounced off the rim.

"I was trying to drive it and they collapsed," he said. "They backed off and I shot it. It was a bad shot on my part."

Northeastern hit 10 of 12 free throws in the final two minutes.

The game turned sour when Maynor hit a layup and was fouled by Matt Janning to pull the Rams within four with 2:10 left.

A shoving match ensued under the basket, and referee Karl Hess angrily charged at Maynor before VCU assistant John Brannen got between them.

Maynor said he didn't know what Hess said to him and didn't say much about the incident in general.

Janning said he "tried to make contact and not let him get the shot off, and he got the and-one. He was just standing over me, yelling at the camera and doing whatever, and then all of a sudden I just looked up and all five guys from each team were standing over me. I scrambled to get everybody together."

Said Coen: "I think it was just two teams competing. A lot of emotion out there. Both teams have a lot of pride. It was all done in the nature of competition."

Northeastern's Manny Adako and VCU's Bradford Burgess were given double technical fouls.

VCU committed four fouls in the first 87 seconds of the game. The Rams were whistled for 27 overall.

"Unfortunately, at the beginning of the game, for the first time, I thought emotion got the best of us," Grant said. "I think our guys knew this was an opportunity to get sole possession of first place. We came out and played very aggressively. Some of that aggression resulted in fouls. That affected the tempo and the pace and mindset for our guys."

Brandon Rozzell had a career-high 16 points for VCU, which took only 13 foul shots. Maynor (1,670 points) moved ahead of Phil Stinnie and into third place on the school's career scoring list.

Eugene Spates and Adako each had 12 points for Northeastern, which shot 47.5 percent. The Rams shot 38.3 percent.

"One of the purposes of our nonconference schedule was to play in some tough arenas," Coen said. "We knew the CAA championship was going to come through VCU, and we'd have to face venues like this and ODU's.

"When you go out and play at Memphis and Assembly Hall in Indiana and Providence, those experiences helped us tonight."

Note VCU athletic director Norwood Teague said he will not grant permission to any school seeking to talk to Grant about a job opening during the season.

Alabama's job opened Monday when Mark Gottfried announced he was leaving, which sparked media speculation that the Tide might target Grant.

Teague's policy is the same he invoked last year when Louisiana State's job opened during the season.

Contact Tim Pearrell at tpearell@timesdispatch.com