Joel Smith scored seven of his game-high 29 points in overtime to lead Northeastern to a 90-84 victory over Georgia State on Wednesday night in Atlanta, clinching the outright Colonial Athletic Association championship for the Huskies.

With NU leading 83-82 inside the final minute, Smith scored his team’s final seven points — on a 3-pointer and four free throws — as the Huskies held off a stubborn Georgia State squad. Northeastern scored 18 points in OT, with 12 of them coming from the free throw line.

Devonta White (24 points) hit a layup with 1:15 left in regulation that tied the score at 72. NU then missed three 3-pointers in the final minute, while GSU missed two shots and a free throw that could have broken the tie.

David Walker scored 16 points for NU (19-10, 14-3 CAA), which already clinched the No. 1 seed for the CAA tournament. Zach Stahl scored 12 points, while Quincy Ford contributed 11 points and nine assists.

This was the Huskies’ fifth overtime game of the season, and the third in their last six games.

Manny Atkins recorded 26 points and 12 rebounds for GSU (15-16, 10-8).

The league title is the first for the Huskies since they earned a share of the North Atlantic Conference crown in 1993.

NU closes out the regular season on Saturday by hosting Old Dominion before preparing for the CAA tournament at the Richmond (Va.) Coliseum the following weekend.

Joe Rahon

A young Boston College team that has struggled to finish games all season finally found a way to win Wednesday night at Conte Forum. Freshman guard Joe Rahon hit two free throws with 7.6 seconds left to give the Eagles the tying and winning points in a 66-63 victory over Wake Forest.

Following Rahon’s free throws, Wake got the ball to a driving C.J. Harris (game-high 23 points), but he lost his footing while trying to make a pass near the BC basket and was called for traveling. Lonnie Jackson hit two free throws with 2.5 seconds left for a three-point cushion, and Wake was unable to get off a final shot.

Rahon finished with 12 points, nine rebounds and four assists for the Eagles (11-13, 3-8 ACC). Patrick Heckmann contributed 14 points and Ryan Anderson netted 12.

Travis McKie scored 11 points for Wake Forest (11-13, 4-8), which shot 51.1 percent from the field compared to 43.8 percent for BC, but had 17 turnovers, six more than the Eagles.

BC led 56-54 with just under seven minutes left after two free throws from Jackson, but the Eagles did not score for the next five minutes. In that time, Wake ran off nine straight points to take a 63-56 lead. Olivier Hanlan ended the drought by hitting two free throws with 1:58 remaining.

While Wake Forest came up short on its next two possessions, BC closed the gap. Rahon made a nice feed to Eddie Odio for a dunk that made it a three-point game, 63-60, with 58 seconds left. Then Hanlon’s driving layup was goaltended, and it was a one-point game with 33 ticks left.

The Demon Deacons then inbounded the ball and started moving it up the court, but the clock never started, so the officials took five seconds off and gave Wake the ball out of bounds. It turned out to benefit BC, as Wake was unable to get the ball inbounds within five seconds and turned it over, setting up Rahon’s heroics.

It offered some redemption for Rahon, who drove hard to the basket in the closing seconds of a one-point game at Wake on Jan. 12 but did not get a foul call or a basket, and the Demon Deacons eventually won that game by three. This time Rahon got the call as he was bumped to the ground while driving down the right side of the lane on two defenders. Rahon stayed on the floor for a few seconds and grimaced as he moved his right arm when he got up, but he shook it off and drilled both of his free throws.

BC, which has lost five ACC games by five points or less, next plays at Florida State on Saturday at noon.

Elsewhere on Wednesday night, Delaware scored the game’s final seven points, including a 3-pointer from Jarvis Threatt with 12 seconds left in overtime that gave the Blue Hens a 76-74 victory over host Northeastern in a battle between the top two teams in the Colonial Athletic Association.

Jonathan Lee scored a game-high 23 points for Northeastern (17-9, 12-2 CAA), while Quincy Ford netted 21.

Threatt scored 20 points for Delaware (14-12, 9-4), which got a layup from Devon Saddler (18 points) with 14 seconds left in regulation to tie the score at 67 and force the extra period.

Johnny Gaudreau (13) will lead BC into the Beanpot final against Northeastern on Monday night. (AP)

No current Northeastern players were born the last time the Huskies won a Beanpot championship, in February 1988. They’ll have a chance to end the school’s drought in the final on Monday, but they’ll have to go through a Boston College team looking to win its fourth straight tournament title, something BC has never done.

Both teams are led by diminutive young forwards: BC by sophomore Johnny Gaudreau, who leads Hockey East with 33 points in 22 games, and Northeastern by Kevin Roy, the highest-scoring freshman in the conference with 30 points in 24 games. Roy, at 5-foot-10, practically towers over the 5-foot-7 Gaudreau, but both have the speed and skill to erase any disadvantages of their size.

Roy outscored Boston University by himself in the semifinal round last Monday, recording a hat trick in Northeastern’s 3-2 win. Northeastern had not beaten BU in the Beanpot since 1988, the last year the Huskies won the tournament, before Roy buried a goal in each period of the semifinal to knock No. 13 BU out of contention.

“I think when the pressure’s higher, I get a better performance, so I was just excited to see what it was like,” Roy said after win.

It’s nothing new for Roy to be the most dominant Husky on the ice. He has 30 points on the season — 10 more than the second-highest Northeastern scorer, Vinny Saponari — and 15 goals, seven more than Cody Ferriero‘s eight.

That lack of balanced scoring might partially account for the fact that Northeastern sits in last place in Hockey East, 4-11-3 in conference play. But the Huskies have beaten BU twice and BC once, playing above their usual threshold when faced with local rivals.

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Wake Forest guard C.J. Harris scored 29 points on 10-of-13 shooting, and the Demon Deacons held off a late Boston College rally for a 75-72 victory Saturday afternoon in Winston-Salem, N.C.

Olivier Hanlan is fouled driving to the basket during BC's loss to Wake Forest. (AP)

Lonnie Jackson scored 23 points to lead the way for BC (9-7, 1-2 ACC). Olivier Hanlan scored 18, and Ryan Anderson record his fifth double-double of the season with 12 points and 10 rebounds.

BC trailed by 10 points with 5:47 remaining before embarking on a 13-4 run, capped by a three-point play from Hanlan with just under two minutes remaining. That got the Eagles within one at 71-70. After a BC defensive breakdown led to a layup for Wake point guard Madison Jones, Joe Rahon hit two free throws to get BC back within a point, 73-72.

Following a Wake miss, BC turned over the ball, but the Demon Deacons (9-6, 2-1) returned the favor with an offensive foul on a moving pick. BC regained possession with 19.5 seconds left. BC got the ball to Rahon, but the guard could not finish his strong drive to the basket, making him 0-for-7.

Harris hit two free throws with 4.1 seconds left to make it 75-72. On BC’s ensuing inbounds pass, Wake’s Travis McKie (18 points) stole it just over midcourt, but apparently thinking the game was over, he started walking with the basketball toward the sideline. That gave BC another chance with 1.5 seconds left. The inbounds pass went to Hanlan, and his contested 3-pointer at the buzzer fell short.

BC next hosts Miami on Wednesday.

In other college basketball action involving local teams Saturday, Northeastern continued its hot start in conference play with a 70-59 victory at Towson as Joel Smith scored 21 points. The Huskies (9-7, 4-0 Colonial Athletic Association) trailed 25-13 with 8:16 left in the first half but closed the period on a 26-8 run to take control. NU is off to its best conference start since beginning 6-0 in 2008-09.

In Hanover, N.H., Harvard closed the game on a 17-2 run for a 75-65 victory over pesky Dartmouth as the Crimson began defense of their Ivy League championship. Siyani Chambers scored 22 points, Wesley Saunders netted 19, and both players had six assists. Harvard (9-2, 1-0 Ivy) shot a blistering 62.8 percent from the field and held the hosts to two points over the game’s final 9:25.

At Boston University, the Terriers got 16 points and seven assists from D.J. Irving in an 85-59 victory over Binghamton. John Papale added 14 points and nine rebounds for BU (8-9, 2-2 America East).

In Bethlehem, Pa., Holy Cross’ Justin Burrell scored 16 points, but the Crusaders could not keep up with Lehigh, falling 79-47 in their Patriot League opener. Lehigh, despite missing standout guard C.J. McCollum (broken foot), went on a 14-0 run late in the first half to take command, then shot 66.7 percent in the second half to pull away from HC (8-8).

Tyler McNeely scored twice while Wade McLeod and Greg Costa added single tallies as the Northeastern Huskies beat Harvard, 4-1, to claim the consolation game of the Beanpot tournament on Monday at TD Garden.

McLeod also assisted on McNeely’s second goal, a power play score 6:29 into the third that gave Northeastern a 3-1 advantage.

McLeod scored an empty-netter with 1:49 remaining to seal the win. Northeastern improved to 14-12-1 while Harvard fell to 6-14-3.

BOSTON  –  A wise old hockey adage goes roughly like this: You can’t score if you don’t shoot.

There’s no need to remind Northeastern coach Greg Cronin of that after he watched his team try to be too cute with the Boston University and wind up on the short end of a 2-1 decision in the Beanpot semifinal Monday night at TD Garden.

And for the 22nd straight year, the Huskies will be heading home without a Beanpot title. The frustration was unmistakeable in his post-game address to reporters.

“The better team won the game,” Cronin said. “BU played a terrific game. They did a good job keeping us to the outside. My biggest problem is that anytime we had an odd-man rush, or even an even-man rush, is that we wouldn’t shoot the damn puck.

“Right before there was a penalty called on Wade MacLeod, he was standing all alone in the slot and wouldn’t shoot it. [Assistant coach] Albie O’Connell kept radioing down asking ‘Why won’t they shoot the puck?’ You reflect back on the game, and I would say conservatively that we had six chances with the puck on our stick right in front of BU’s net, and we refused to shoot the puck. Part of that was because they were doing a nice job putting their bodies in the shot lanes, and part of it was guys trying to pick a better apple.”

By contrast, BU coach Jack Parker counted over 80 shots by his team on Monday night, though many never reached NU goalie Chris Rawlings. If only NU had taken that approach, the result would have likely been much different.

“In a playoff-type game like this, when you get scoring chances in the slot, you’ve got to shoot the puck,” Cronin said. “Give [Alex] Chiasson credit – he held it and held it and held it, and I actually thought our defenseman played it well, but somehow, it snuck through Chris. It was a combination of two things: they did a nice job blocking shots, and we just didn’t want to shoot it.”

Even though his team just dispatched Northeastern, 2-1, in a hard-fought Beanpot semifinal at TD Garden Monday night, Boston University coach Jack Parker was very honest about playing Boston College next Monday night in yet another BU-BC showdown for the 58th Beanpot championship game.

“The Beanpot is losing its luster a little bit if it’s constantly going to be BU or BC winning this tournament. We dodged a bullet tonight. These teams are real good hockey programs, Harvard and Northeastern. It’s not good overall, people are going to get tired of it. People are tired of it in some ways.”

[Click here to hear Parker's analysis of the BU-BC tradition that is growing old in the eyes of some.]

BU has won a record 29 Beanpot titles, and has reached the title game in 25 of the last 27 years. In the first game, Boston College hammered Harvard, 6-0, to reach its 30th Beanpot title game.

The two schools have combined to win the last 16 Beanpots, dating to Harvard’s title in 1993. The two programs have met in the Beanpot title game in eight of those 16.

Alex Chiasson’s shot dribbled past Chris Rawlings with 5:47 left in the third to lead the Boston University Terriers to a 2-1 win over the Northeastern Huskies in the second Beanpot semifinal on Monday night at TD Garden.

Northeastern had a power play and pulled the goalie for the final 88 seconds but could not score. The Terriers (10-11-3) advance to face their archrival Boston College in the 58th Beanpot Championship game next Monday night at TD Garden. BC advanced with an easy 6-0 romp over Harvard in Monday’s first semifinal.

Northeastern (11-12-1) had tied it midway through the third on a power play goal by Kyle Kraemer.

“I thought it was a great college hockey game to watch,” said BU coach Jack Parker. “There were times when each time had a lot of possession in the other teams zone, a lot of good opportunities. Both goaltenders played great. It was pressed right to the end, they got the power play goal to tie it up and then we get the two-on-one on a nice break.

“[David] Warsofsky jumping in the play creates the two-on-one and Chaisson takes the shot and gets it buy him. We’ve played Northeastern twice this year and got two goals total against them. We attempted 80 shots tonight and I think we attempted 86 the last time we played them over in there place. So we have had some opportunities against this goaltender and he has had played extremely well against us I thought our goalie played great and he made an unbelievable save at the end of the game.” Read the rest of this entry »