Thank you all for tuning in and following along. Please follow all tourament long as VAVEL USA will have you covered throughout all the Madness. This is Karl Capen wishing you have a happy rest of your Thursday and hoping you enjoyed the coverge of the Notre Dame Fighting Irish defeating the Norteastern Huskies 69-65.
VAVEL USA Player of the Game: Zach Auguste 10/14 FG, 25 PTS, 5 REB
End of the 2nd Half: No. 3 Notre Dame survies and moves on to the round of 32 with a 69-65 victory. All hats off to No. 14 Northeastern who battled tough all afternoon and just narrowly missed pulling off the historic upset.
2nd Half, 1.9: Zach Auguste buries both free throws and puts the icing on the cake, 69-65 Irish
2nd Half, 32.5: Eatherton off from another offensive rebound puts it back in, cuts the lead to two, 67-65 Irish
2nd Half, 1:14: T.J. Williams with the offensive rebound and bucket, the Huskies will not go down easy, 67-63 Irish
2nd Half, 1:19: Jerian Grant with a HUGE steal on defense and throws it down, 67-61 Irish
2nd Half, 2:01: Scott Eatherton with a perfect cut to the basket and makes the layup, Northeastern only down 4, 65-61 Irish
2nd Half, 3:24: Quincy Ford gets inside and hits the short jumper, 65-59 Irish
2nd Half, 4:38: David Walker with the jumper for NE, 65-57 Irish
2nd Half, 4:53: Connaughton gets inside and makes the layup, 65-55 Irish
2nd Half, 5:11: Eatherton hits both free throws on the one-and-one, 63-55 Irish
2nd Half, 5:47: Eatherton with the layup down low, 63-53 Irish
2nd Half, 5:58: JACKSON FOR THREEEEEEEEE, 63-51 Irish
2nd Half, 6:24: Spencer makes both free throws, 60-51 Irish
2nd Half, 6:30: Jackson with the pretty dish to Auguste who rattles the rim with force, 60-49 Irish
2nd Half, 7:13: Stahl with the layup off from another offensive rebound from NE, 58-49 Irish
2nd Half, 7:42: Grant with the easy layup again, 58-47 Irish
2nd Half, 8:07: Eatherton with the offensive rebound and put back, 56-47 Irish
2nd Half, 8:42: Zach Auguste AGAIN with another layup. He has dominated the paint in the second half, 56-45 Irish
2nd Half, 9:10: T.J. Williams comes right back and hits a layup himself, NE holding strong, 54-45
2nd Half, 9:38: Jerian Grant takes it to the hole and pushes the lead now to double digits, 54-43 Irish
2nd Half, 12:15: Grant with two free throws and ND pushes the lead to 9, 52-43
2nd Half, 12:57: Jackson with the layup, 50-43 Irish
2nd Half, 13:15: Auguste with the layup, 48-43 Irish
2nd Half, 13:34: Walker drives and scoops it up and in again! 46-43 Irish
2nd Half, 13:45: Auguste with a layup AAAND ONE of his own, 46-41 Irish
2nd Half, 14:07: David Walker fights through the contact and gets the layup AAAAND ONE, 43-41 Irish
2nd Half, 15:07: Scott Eatherton with the layup and the Huskies are within five, 43-38
2nd Half, 15:39: Ford AGAIN with a jumper, 43-36 Irish
2nd Half, 16:35: Quincy Ford with the smooth touch on the jumper, 43-34 Irish
2nd Half, 16:51: Auguste with the easy layup, 43-32 Irish
2nd Half, 17:51: Walker with a longggg two, 41-32 Irish
2nd Half, 18:11: Connaughton with the pretty jumper, 39-30 Irish
2nd Half, 18:25: T.J. Williams with the bucket AAAND ONE, 37-30 Irish
2nd Half, 18:48: Steve Vasturia with the steal and takes it to the basket, 37-27 Irish
2nd Half, 18:59: Connaughton makes both free throws, 35-27 Irish
2nd Half, 19:26: Auguste opens up the second half scoring, 33-27 Irish
Start of the 2nd Half
End of the 1st Half: No. 3 seed Notre Dame holds a slim 31-27 lead over No. 14 seed Northeastern
1st Half, 0.0: Pat Connaughton steals it at half-court and his desperation three is off the mark
1st Half, 11.0: Zach Auguste makes the layup, 31-27 Irish
1st Half, 42.0: The Huskies will not go away though. A three from Quincy Ford makes it, 29-27 Irish
1st Half, 1:02: Jackson dumps one off for Auguste and he converts the layup, ND now on a 7-0 run, 29-24 Irish
1st Half, 1:36: Jackson with the pump fake and takes it to the rack, 27-24 Irish
1st Half, 3:04: Jerian Grant takes it to the hole and is trying to take over this game for ND, 25-24 Irish
1st Half, 3:32: Vasturia makes 1 out of 2 free throws, 24-23 Huskies
1st Half, 3:52: Zach Stahl with the turnaround, 24-22 Huskies
1st Half, 4:56: Grant, though, is feeling it now. Another basket and that notches things at 22-all
1st Half, 5:27: Stahl with the steal and the coast-to-coast layup to give Northeastern the lead! 22-20 Huskies
1st Half, 6:13: But the Huskies won't go away, Spencer with another bucket and we are tied again, 20-20
1st Half, 6:42: Grant with another jumper and uh oh NU, watch out as he now has four quick points, 20-18 ND
1st Half, 7:14: David Walker with a DEEP three ties it all up at 18-18
1st Half, 7:57: Grant with a jumper, 18-15 Irish
1st Half, 8:11: Zach Stahl with the layup, 16-15 Irish lead
1st Half, 8:40: Reggie Spencer with the jumper for NU, 16-13
1st Half, 9:05: Jerian Grant, Irish leading scorer, finally gets on the score card with a free throw, 16-11 Irish
1st Half, 9:47: Jackson with the layup off from his own steal, 15-11 Irish
1st Half, 10:28: Austin Torres with the bucket after the big block on defense, 13-11 Irish
1st Half, 11:51: Bonzie Colson with two free throws ties it up at 11-11
1st Half, 12:15: Eatherton with the big boy slam! We see you NU, hanging tough with the Irish. 11-9 Huskies.
1st Half, 12:55: Eatherton once again fouled but misses both free throws. Still all even at 9-9
1st Half, 13:25: Spencer with a bucket, 9-9 all tied up
1st Half, 14:28: Bonzie Colson with a nice short little jumper and Irish regain the lead, 9-7
1st Half, 14:46: Eatherton makes both free throws and we are all knotted up at 7-7. Senior leader looking to take control for the Huskies
1st Half, 15:27: Eatherton with the slam for NU, 7-5 Irish
1st Half, 17:12: Pat Connaughton for three! 7-3 Irish
1st Half, 17:49: Auguste layup and the Irish take the lead 4-3
1st Half, 18:35: Zach Auguste two free throws, 3-2 Huskies
1st Half, 19:23: David Walker with a three, 3-0 Huskies
1st Half, 20:00: Huskies win the tip and we are OFF
The Northeastern Huskies are ready and confident to pull off the upset, but the Notre Dame Fighting Irish are on a mission to make up for missing the tournament in 2014. Catch tip-off and all the live action coming here shortly!
T-minus 15 minutes until tip-off and the start of the second round of the 2015 NCAA Tournament. Are you all excited?! Because I am!
Northeastern, a 14 seed in this years tournament, has some more luck on their side. In each of the past two tournaments, a No 14 seed has upset a No 3 seed. Mercer over Duke in 2014 and Harvard over New Mexico in 2013. But the Huskies are making their third appearance as a No. 14 seed and in each of the last two times they have lost.
Very interesting to note that in recent years, the CAA conference has had some good luck in upsets over ACC teams in the tournament. George Mason over North Carolina in 2006, along with Virginia Commonwealth (VCU) over Duke in 2007 and over Florida State in 2011.
Northeastern, though, might have something to say about that. The Huskies are led by senior forward Scott Eatherton (14.6 ppg), but the player to keep an eye on in this game for Northeastern is junior forward Quincy Ford (10.4 ppg) who scored 22 points against William & Mary in the CAA championship game. Ford was 8-for-10 shooting from the floor that day and is the type of player who can score in a hurry if he gets hot.
The Fighting Irish enter today's game on a five-game win streak and there is much speculation that this team could go deep into the tournament. Being in the Midwest bracket, though, all teams there know that the road to the Final Four will go through Kentucky. If both Kentucky and Notre Dame run the table, we could see both teams squaring off in the Elite Eight.
Notre Dame is a very unselfish basketball team. Led by leading scorer Jerian Grant (16.8 ppg), the Irish have three other players who average more than 10 points per game. Pat Connaughton (12.8 ppg), Demetrius Jackson (12.5), and Zach Auguste (12.4).
The Figting Irish are coming off a hot ACC Tournament run that saw them upset Duke and win the title over a very talented UNC team. This ACC Championship was the first conference tournament title in school history.
In addition to the excitement surrounding Northeastern’s first tournament appearance in 24 years, there is the interesting storyline that Huskies assistant coach Chris Markwood played for the Fighting Irish from 2000-2001. He seems thrilled by the prospect of taking on his former team. He said that once he saw where Notre Dame was headed, he knew that Northeastern would soon follow. “I started laughing,” Markwood said Wednesday. “Once you saw the talk about them getting a three seed, we kind of knew we’d be the 13-15 range. It’s a cool thing to see.”
They didn’t make the tournament in 1983, but in 1984 they won a game in the tournament for the last time. A 90-87 victory over Long Island in the preliminary round paved the way for a first round loss to Virginia Commonwealth by a score of 70-69. The next three years all produced tournament appearances, but they were unable to win once. Losses came at the hands of Illinois (76-57), Oklahoma (80-74) and Purdue (104-95). They then went three years without a tournament appearance before their loss to North Carolina in 1991.
The following season, they nearly bettered that result. Again, the Huskies made their way to the second round after defeating Saint Joseph’s 63-62 in the opening game of the tournament. In the second round, another Philadelphia team was waiting for them: Villanova. Had they won, it would have been an incredible upset and the upset nearly came true. Northeastern came desperately close to winning only to lose 76-72 after three overtime periods.
The 80s were the heyday of Huskies basketball, and between 1981-1987 they went to the Big Dance on six occasions. Their first victory in the tournament came in 1981 when they defeated Fresno State by a score of 55-53 in the first round before going out 94-69 at the hands of Utah in the second round.
Given that this is the first NCAA Tournament appearance for Northeastern since 1991, let’s take a look at how they’ve fared in the tournament in the past:
As they went on their way to a 72-61 victory over William & Mary, they were led by a 22 point performance from Quincy Ford who went on to be named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player. The Huskies enjoyed a near perfect game, and never trailed. They shot 59.1 percent for the game and were 12-20 from beyond the arc, and Ford on his own went 8-10 shooting with four threes. It was not only Ford who enjoyed a superb game. Walker enjoyed a third successive good game, and added 15 points of his own while Donnelly scored 13 and Eatherton had 12. It was another terrific performance from the Huskies star players, and it should fill them with confidence that they can try and spring a surprise in today’s game.
Finally came the day that every Huskies fan had been dreaming of for quite some time. The Huskies have not made an appearance in the “Big Dance” since 1991 when they lost to North Carolina by a score of 101-66. Making it to the NCAA Tournament is the dream for mid-major teams, and with a chance to break a 24 year streak of the worst kind, there was no chance that Northeastern would not win.
Northeastern’s semifinal was a tight, back and forth encounter with University of North Carolina-Wilmington which ended in a 78-71 victory for the Huskies. The game featured five ties and nine lead changes before the Huskies pulled away late and hit some clutch free throws to preserve the victory. While starters Scott Eatherton and Walker were superb, 21 and 11 points respectively, the bulk of scoring for Northeastern came from the bench. Senior Reggie Spencer, junior Caleb Donnelly, and freshman Devon Begley all scored 11 points each off the bench, keying the victory.
The games for the Huskies got progressively less close as the tournament went along. They kicked it off with a close, 67-64 victory over Delaware. A strong, 17 point scoring performance from junior David Walker was crucial for them, and he made a number of clutch free throws to ice the game as the Blue Hens attempted to make a comeback attempt.
The Northeastern Huskies enter the NCAA Tournament with a 23-11 record and they won the Colonial Athletic Association conference tournament to ensure their place in the field of 68. They were the number three seed in the CAA tournament, and enjoyed their shining moment on March 9th when they defeated William and Mary in the tournament championship.
Good early afternoon and welcome to VAVEL USA's live coverage of the 2015 NCAA Men's Basketball Tournament and Northeastern Huskies - Notre Dame Fighting Irish live. This afternoon we bring you first game of the second round live from the CONSOL Energy Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, between the Northeastern Huskies of the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) and the Notre Dame Fighting Irish from the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC). The game tips off at 12:15 PM ET, and although it is a 14 seed taking on a 3 seed, anything can happen in the tournament.This game begins a complete slate of tournament action throughout the day, so strap in with VAVEL USA and enjoy the ride. My name is Karl Capen and I will be your humble host this afternoon for Northeastern Huskies - Notre Dame Fighting Irish live.