Box Score

The Northeastern women's basketball team turned in its best offensive effort of the season, defeating William & Mary, 82-71, on Sunday afternoon at Solomon Court. Deanna Kerkhof scored a career-high 29 points to lead all scorers, while teammate Jewel Tunstull tallied a career-best 22 for the Huskies. Senior Jamie Conroy dished out 16 assists to set a new Northeastern school record. With the win, Northeastern moves to 4-16 (2-7 CAA) on the season.
 
Northeastern captured the lead less than two minutes into the game and never-again trailed. The Huskies put the game out of reach with a 14-4 run midway through the second half to secure their second conference win of the year.
 
Dani Iervolino joined Kerkhof and Tunstull in double-figures, scoring 13 points on 4-of-9 shooting from 3-point range. Tunstull also grabbed a 12 rebounds for her fourth double-double of the season and her second in the last two games.
 
Janine Aldridge scored 27 to lead William & Mary (9-11, 2-7), while Emily Correal added 12. Aldridge knocked down nine three pointers on the day, a William & Mary record.
 
Northeastern limited William & Mary­—the CAA's second-highest scoring team—to just 23 first-half points. The Tribe, though, came out firing to open the second half, scoring 12 points in just over three minutes of play to cut the lead to six, 41-35, with 16:39 remaining. Kerkhof and Tunstull accounted for six Northeastern points, while Katherine DeHenzel, Correal, Aldridge and Jaclyn McKenna scored for the Tribe.
 
The Huskies responded with five-straight points on an Iervolino three and a Tunstull lay-up to push the margin to 11, 46-35.
 
After three points from the Tribe, the Huskies' Kerkhof answered with yet another 3-pointer—her fifth of the game—to again push the margin to double-digits, 49-38, with just over 13 minutes remaining.
 
Genevieve Gaboriault then connected on a three from the left wing in transition to give the Red and Black a 14-point cushion, 52-38, and force a Tribe timeout with 12:35 remaining.
 
Out of the timeout, an Aldridge three cut the margin to 11, 52-41. Another Aldridge triple, this one out of the under-12 media timeout, cut the lead to eight, 52-44, and forced a Northeastern timeout.
 
The Huskies' Kerkhof connected on a pair of free throws before the Tribe's Taysha Pye converted a put-back to keep the visitors within striking distance, 54-46, with just over 10 minutes showing on the clock.
 
A steal and transition lay-up by Pye at the 8:30 mark narrowed the gap to six, 54-48.
 
Northeastern answered with two Tunstull free throws before a put-back by W&M's Correal again cut the margin to six, 56-50, with just under 8:00 to play.
 
Tunstull made one of two free throws out of the under-eight timeout to move the lead to seven, 57-50, before a lay-up by the Tribe's Correal narrowed the gap to five, 55-50.
 
The Huskies, though, answered with a 14-4 run to put the game out of reach. Iervolino ignited the onslaught with a three. Kerkhof followed with a basket and Conroy scooped home a lay-up to make it 64-52.
 
A basket by Correal was quickly answered by a Tunstulllay-in and an Iervolino three, pushing the Northeastern lead to a game-high 15 points, 69-54, with under four minutes remaining.
 
William & Mary made one final effort to get back into the game when consecutive 3-point baskets by Aldridge cut the deficit to eight, 71-63. However, that was as close as the Tribe would get. The Huskies' Iervolino dialed in with a long-distance shot of her own to end the threat and put the home side back up by double digits. Each team scored eight points over the final two minutes of the game to set the final margin, 82-71, in favor of Northeastern.
 
To open the game, the CAA's top two 3-point-shooting teams traded makes from behind the arc, with Aldridge connecting on the game's opening possession and Christine Huber answering for the Huskies.
 
Tunstull gave the Huskies their first lead of the game a transition lay-up at 18:23. A basket by the Tribe's Correal tied the score, before consecutive 3-point baskets by Kerkhof gave the home team a six-point lead, which they would never relinquish, with 17:07 remaining.
 
Following a 3-point basket by W&M's Aldridge, a jumper by Tunstull, a steal and transition lay-up by Kerkof, and a jumper by Mark pushed the Northeastern advantage to nine, 17-8.
 
Out of a timeout, a long-range basket by the Tribe's Taylor Hilton pulled the visitors to within six. Kerkhof answered with a jumper in the lane for the home side to make the score 19-11 with just over 12 minutes remaining.
 
W&M posted five-straight points on either side of the 12-minute media timeout to pull within three.
 
The teams then went scoreless for nearly three minutes, until Kerkhof and Aldridge again traded threes on successive possessions.
 
The Huskies then embarked on an 11-0 run to open up the game. Huber ignited the run with a traditional three-point play, followed by two Kerkhof free throws, a lay-up by Tunstull, and a jumper by Conroy. Another basket by Tunstll capped the Northeastern run and gave the Huskies their largest lead of the half, 33-19, with 2:23 to play.
 
After a Tribe timeout, Pye hit a short jumper in the lane to end the Huskies' run. Tunstull answered with a layup for Northeastern, before a lay-up by the Tribe's McKenna closed the first half scoring and pulled the visitors to within 12, 35-23, at the half.
 
For the game, Northeastern shot 44 percent (27-61) from the floor, including 42 percent (11-26) from beyond the arc. The Huskies were 74 percent (17-23) from the free throw line. William & Mary also connected on 44 percent (26-59) of its field goals and was 46 percent (13-28) from 3-point range. The Tribe was 6-of-9 (67 percent) from the charity stripe. The Huskies out-rebounded the Tribe, 37-34, and forced 19 W&M turnovers while collecting  a season-high 15 steals. NU also had its season high in assists with 21 and a season low 11 turnovers.
 
Northeastern will return to action on Thursday, Feb. 2, when it travels to Atlanta to face CAA-foe Georgia State. Game time is set for 7p.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.