Northeastern Huskies heading to first NCAA tournament in 24 years

Northeastern’s players mobbed each other near midcourt where they were met by about a few dozen fans who wanted nothing more than to embrace their heroes who accomplished a feat no one at the Boston school had seen in nearly a quarter-century: an NCAA tournament berth.

The third-seeded Huskies erased 24 years of mostly miserable Marches with a 72-61 victory over William & Mary in the Colonial Athletic Association tournament final, delivering a beating on Monday night that was as thorough as it was surprising.

But Northeastern (23-11) wasn’t concerned about the past, only the present, as players got their hands on the conference trophy that looked golden as it glistened under the lights at Royal Farms Arena.

“This was the goal,” said junior forward Quincy Ford, who scored a game-high 22 points en route to being named the tournament’s Most Outstanding Player. “We’re not waiting anymore. We’re going to the NCAA tournament. How many years has it been, 24?”

Yes, Northeastern fans, it’s been that long since the Huskies had their name on the most famous set of beautifully symmetrical lines and right angles in all of sports: the NCAA bracket, which will be unveiled on Sunday.

Consider: The last time Northeastern made the NCAA tournament, Eastern Airlines was still in business, Seinfeld debuted on NBC, Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Terminator 2: Judgment Day rocked the box office and some hip-hop group named Color Me Badd rivaled Bryan Adams for the top spot on the Billboard 100.

“All that doesn’t matter now,” Ford said.

For the first time since the World Wide Web was introduced, millions of college basketball spectators of all ages – from the most passionate fans to doctors and construction workers to soccer moms – will get the chance to predict how far the Huskies will advance in the 68-team field.

“Playing in the NCAA tournament is so much bigger than just our team,” Ford said. “It’s for our students and our fans and our whole university who wanted this so much.”

Northeastern reveled in punching its ticket to the Big Dance after being turned away at the door annually since winning the North Atlantic Conference, which is now known as the America East,  in 1991.  But William & Mary continued to be an answer to perhaps college basketball’s most difficult trivia question: Name the five of the 160 original Division I schools that has never made the NCAA tournament?

Seventy-six NCAA tournaments have been played and not one included William & Mary, St. Francis (NY), Army, The Citadel and Northwestern. William & Mary will have to wait at least one more agonizing year after the school from Williamsburg, Va., lost in the conference title game for the second straight year.

Northeastern, which defeated the Tribe by 11 on Feb. 18, never trailed en route to claiming the CAA’s lone automatic berth in the NCAA tournament. William & Mary will head to the lesser National Invitation tournament since it won the conference’s regular-season title.

The Huskies made their first four shots, including two three-pointers, to take a 10-0 lead, prompting William & Mary (20-12) to call timeout less a little more then two minutes into the game.

After the Tribe tied the game at 18 with 9:25 left, the Huskies responded by dominating the rest of the half to take a 36-26 lead at intermission. Ford scored 15 points and redshirt senior forward Scott Eatherton added six, as the duo shot 9 for 10 from the field to outscore William & Mary’s starters (17 points) by themselves in the first 20 minutes.

Northeastern turned a close game into a rout midway through the second half. Just when it appeared William & Mary was making a push after junior guard Terry Tarpey’s layup pulled the Tribe to within 42-35 with 12:42 remaining, the Huskies were unstoppable for the next five minutes.

Five Huskies scored during a decisive, 18-5 run that swelled their lead to 60-40 with 7:30 remaining and silenced the thousands of green and yellow-clad William & Mary fans who sensed the impending disappointment.

Ford, who scored 22 points on 8 of 10 shooting including 4 for 5 from beyond the arc, led a balanced offense in which three other Huskies – junior guard David Walker (15 points, 4 assists), Eatherton (12 points, 5 rebounds) and redshirt junior guard Caleb Donnelly (13 points) – also finished in double figures. The Huskies shot a red-hot 60 percent (12 of 20) from three-point range.

“We knew no one on our team could beat William & Mary by themselves,” said Eatherton, whose team led by as many as 22 points with 3:39 left. “We needed everyone to come up big and that’s what happened.

William & Mary was led by senior guard Marcus Thornton (20 points), sophomore guard Daniel Dixon (15 points) and Tarpey (10 points, 7 rebounds).