Box Score
Post-Game Press Conference
Game Highlights

BOSTON, Mass., Nov. 19, 2011 -- Jonathan Lee scored a game-high 24 points, and Kauri Black contributed 13 points and six rebounds, as Northeastern won its home opener, 64-57, over Southern Illinois on Saturday at Matthews Arena. With the victory, the Huskies improve to 2-1 on the season. Southern Illinois is now 0-3.

Freshman forward Reggie Spencer continued his impressive play. The reigning CAA Rookie of the Week scored nine points and grabbed eight rebounds in 26 minutes. Kashief Edwards tallied eight points, while Joel Smith and Quincy Ford each added five points.

Mamadou Seck and Taylor Diamond both scored in double figures for Southern Illinois, with 17 and 12 points respectively. Treg Setty contributed eight points and six rebounds.

Playing on Homecoming, Northeastern opened the game with a quick 6-2 run. A dunk by Black jumpstarted the Huskies attack. Lee followed with a layup, and Edwards delivered a dunk in transition.

Two quick baskets by the Salukis evened the score, and the teams settled into a back-and-forth affair. By the second media timeout, at 11:59, the visiting team had grabbed a slim one-point lead, at 15-14. Lee, though, was off and running. The junior guard was responsible for half of the Huskies' 14 points.

The Salukis scored five-straight points out of the timeout to push the lead to 20-14, and Northeastern went more than three minutes without a point. A three-pointer by Lee--his second of the game--broke the drought and ignited a Northeastern run. The Huskies limited SIU to just one point over the next 6:48, outscoring the Salukis 13-1 during that span to take a 27-21 lead.

The Salukis responded with a five-point run of their own, to close the margin to one, before Ford hit the first three-pointer of his collegiate career to push the margin back to four. A free throw by Black increased the lead to five, before a jumper by SIU's Josh Swan closed the first half scoring, sending the teams to the locker room with the Huskies leading, 31-28.

Northeastern increased its lead to five in the opening moments, before SIU eventually cut the margin to one. Co-captains Lee and Smith answered the call with back-to-back baskets--the first a three by Lee, followed by a Smith jumper--to push the lead to six.

After two SIU free throws from Josh Swan, Black converted a layup and Lee connected on a jumper to give Northeastern its largest lead of the game, 46-38. The Salukis answered with a traditional three-point play by Seck, to cut the margin to five, but a three-pointer by Smith pushed the advantage back to eight for the Huskies. Smith's three, though, was the last Northeastern point for more than three minutes, as SIU engineered an 8-0 run to tie the game, 49-49, with 8:37 remaining.

From that point, it became a game of free throws. Over the final eight minutes, 17 of the game's final 23 points were scored from the charity stripe. A Lee layup, a dunk by Black, and a jumper by SIU's Seck accounted for the only points from the field over the game's final minutes. Northeastern, was impressive, going 11-for-12 from the line down the stretch to secure the victory, 64-57.

The Huskies will be back in action on Saturday, Nov. 16, when they travel to Queens, N.Y.--the hometown of Huskies' freshman Devin Figueroa--to face Big East-member St. John's. Game time at Carnesecca Arena is set for 4 p.m.

A replay of this game is available at GoNU.com/xstream. GoNUxstream is free to all viewers and features live and on-demand video and audio broadcasts, as well as live game stats, and is accessible on PC and Mac computers, as well as on iPhones, iPads and Android phones.


GAME NOTES
> Lee's 24-point total was one off his career-high of 25
> Black collected a career-high three steals
> Ford hit his first career three-pointer, and tied a career high with five rebounds
> Bigby blocked two shots, to set a new career high