USIU Rally Not Enough as Northeastern Wins

U.S. International, which calls itself a fast-breaking, high-scoring basketball team, fell to 0-3 Tuesday mainly because it couldn’t shoot.

In their home opener at Golden Hall, the Soaring Gulls fell to fatigue-stricken Northeastern, 97-86, after staging a second-half comeback in front of about 150 fans.

USIU fell behind by as many as 21 points in the first half and trailed by 18 at halftime, 54-36. But thanks in part to a 42-point scoring spree by guard Kevin Bradshaw and the fact the Huskies’ tongues were hanging with 10 minutes left in the second half, the Gulls cut that lead to eight points with 3:38 to play.

Northeastern’s lead grew to 24 points early in the second half, shortly after Gulls center Mike Sterner picked up his fourth foul and had to go to the bench. But the lead was cut to 10 within the next 10 minutes, thanks to Bradshaw’s shooting pyrotechnics.

Bradshaw, who had 24 points in the second half, nailed a three-point shot, then followed with a 12-foot turn-around jumper from the wing to make it 84-74 with 4:07 to go. Then USIU got the closest it would come since the game’s opening minutes to overtaking Northeastern (2-2), which led the entire contest.

Bradshaw took a rebound from Sterner and threw a length-of-the-court pass to guard Isaac Brown, who sent the crowd to its feet with a thundering slam dunk. That made the score 84-76, as the Huskies, tired from having played four games in five nights, began missing easy shots.

But Brown’s dunk was one of few high points in an extremely sloppy game that produced 46 turnovers, 25 by Northeastern. Gulls guard Algenoid Banks typified the frustration of both teams when, with 1:59 to go, he dribbled out of bounds setting up a play.

“We’ve played three games so far and I’ve really not seen an opponent hurt us,” USIU Coach Gary Zarecky said. “We’re hurting ourselves. I’ve got to hand it to the kids, they did come back in the second half. Northeastern is a very good team, but they’re tired. We’re a fast-breaking team. We get open shots and we can’t knock them down.”

The Gulls shot 40% in the first half, 41% for the game and missed badly on several open shots. Bradshaw was 14-for-33 from the floor, 13-for-14 from the line.

“We’re a young team,” Bradshaw said. “It’s going to take a few games for us to get the chemistry together. But we have a good attitude and I think we’ll come around.”

Steve Carney came off the bench to lead Northwestern with 21 points.