• Box Score

Virginia Commonwealth had 18 steals and four players reach double figures as the Rams held off Northeastern 78-54 on Sunday afternoon in the conference opener. Kim Carr led the Huskies with a game-high 23 points on 8-of-11 shooting while adding 11 rebounds for a double-double.

The Rams opened the game on a 9-0 run, using five steals in that frame before Carr's basket put the Huskies on the board at the 16:10 mark. Northeastern scored the next six points on back to back three pointers from Kendra Walton and Dani Iervolino to cut the margin to one. VCU hit back with an 11-2 run for an 11-point lead at 21-10. Northeastern would get to within seven off an Iervolino three at 3:39, but VCU held the Huskies scoreless while scoring the final 10 points of the half to take a 43-26 lead at the half.

Carr had 12 first half points on 5-of-6 shooting as the Huskies shot 38.5 percent from the floor and 40 percent from three in the half. VCU's La'Tavia Rorie had 16 points in the half while Kita Waller had 11 as VCU shot 47.1 percent from the floor. The Rams had 12 steals, leading to 28 points off the turnovers in the opening frame with Waller and Jennifer Lane each swiping the ball five times.

A 7-2 Northeastern run in the first 2:59 of half cut the 17 point lead to 11, but back to back three point plays for VCU made the score 51-34 4:11 into the half.

The Huskies plugged away on a 10-2 run over 4:18, getting all its point at the free throw line to bring the game to 53-44 with 10:16 remaining. The Rams' offense came back to life hitting two field goals for a 60-45 lead. The Huskies brought the game back to a 12 points, but it was as close as they would get as VCU pushed the game to a 24-point advantage over the final 6:55 of the game to take the conference opener.

Walton added 12 points for Northeastern while Iervolino had nine as the Huskies drop to 5-7 on the season and 0-1 in CAA play. Waller led VCU with 20 points while Rorie had 18 and D'Andra Moss (15) and Courtney Hurt (10) rounded out the scoring for the Rams who improve to 8-5 and 1-0 in conference play.

Northeastern returns to action on January 7 taking on Old Dominion at Solomon Court at 5 p.m.