Box Score
Post-game comments (Daynia La-Force)

NEWARK, N.J. -- The Northeastern women's basketball team (4-2, 0-0 CAA) ran its winning streak to three on Saturday afternoon, taking home a 59-45 victory in a slugfest over NJIT (4-4, 0-0 Great West) at the Estelle and Zoom Fleisher Athletic Center.

Redshirt-senior captain Kashaia Cannon (Providence, R.I.) led the Huskies with 16 points, and Northeastern forced 21 Highlander turnovers, while holding NJIT to 28.9 percent shooting from the floor. The win marks the fourth time in six games this year NU has held an opponent to 50 points or less.

Joining Cannon with double figures were junior Jewel Tunstull (Brooklyn, N.Y.) who finished with 14 points and eight rebounds, and senior co-captain Deanna Kerkhof (Wallaceburg, Ontario), who dropped 10 points and grabbed five boards. Sophomore A'lece Mark (Springfield, Mass.) stuffed the stat sheet with eight points, six rebounds, three assists and three steals.

Northeastern led 31-17 at the half and never trailed in the contest. NJIT closed to within 10 in the second frame, but could never push the second half deficit back to single digits. Rayven Johnson led all players with 18 points and nine rebounds for the Highlanders. NU forced 21 turnovers in the contest, including snagging a season-high 14 steals, led by three each from Mark, Cannon and Tunstull.

Mark found Tunstull inside for an easy lay-up to give NU the contest's first bucket, before Tunstull grabbed an offensive rebound on NU's next possession and put the Huskies up four, forcing a quick NJIT timeout at 18:11 of the first.  Another offensive board and put-back for Tunstull had the Red and Black up six, and a runner from freshman Kazzidy Stewart (Lanham, Md.) had the Huskies up 8-0 at the game's first media timeout.

NJIT's Rayven Johnson finally stopped NU's game-opening run to get the Highlanders on the board, before NU responded with a pair of buckets from Mark and Kerkhof to send the game to the 11:58 stoppage up 12-3.

The teams traded baskets before an NJIT timeout at 8:56, with NU up 16-7. A Cannon turnaround jumper in the paint after the break gave NU its first double digit lead of the day heading into the 7:46 timeout, and Cannon's first triple of the game gave NU its largest lead at 21-9.

After a pair of Johnson freebies, Mark went coast-to-coast off a steal for a lay-in and then converted a three-point play, putting the Huskies up 24-11. The Highlanders cut it back to single digits at nine, but a Cannon three and buckets from Mark and Tanisha Hopewell (Upper Marlboro, Md.) sent the Huskies to the break up 31-17.

Northeastern held NJIT to just 20 percent shooting (5-25) from the floor in the first half, and the Highlanders are now the fourth team in six tries the Huskies have held to 20 or less points in the opening stanza.

Tunstull again got the period's scoring starting, hitting inside on the first possession of the half. Six straight points from NJIT had the Highlanders back within 10, before a freebie and a put back for Tunstull had the Huskies back up 36-23 at the half's first stoppage with 15:48 to play.

The Huskies pushed their lead back over 15 with a Stewart lay-in and a Kerkhof three to head into the 10:52 stop up 43-25. A trifecta from sophomore Amencie Mercier (Pierrefonds, Quebec) coming out of the break pushed the lead to 20 for the first time, but the Highlanders responded with eight straight and cut the deficit to 46-34 with nine minutes to play, and it stayed there at the game's penultimate media timeout at 7:56.

Kerkhof made a heady play to end the Highlander run with six minutes to play, drawing a foul on a long contested jumper as the shot clock expired before hitting two free throws. A Cannon jumper had NU back up 16 at 50-34, before NJIT connected and La-Force called a timeout with 4:14 to play. Two more Cannon buckets on either end of the game's final media stoppage had NU up 17, before Johnson hit the first Highlander three of the day to force another NU timeout with 2:41 to play.

Northeastern controlled possession over the game's final ticks, and the Huskies made some late free throws, including the first two of the career of freshman Onia Webb (Bronx, N.Y.),  to seal the 59-45 victory.

Next up for Northeastern will be a pair of home contests with in-state rivals Holy Cross and Massachusetts, sandwiching NU's 17-day finals break. First up will be the Crusaders of HC on Dec. 5 at 7 p.m.