Box Score
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BOSTON, Mass., Feb. 14, 2012--Junior Joel Smith scored 20 points and connected on 5-of-8 3-point attempts, while freshman Reggie Spencer added a career-high 17 as the Northeastern men's basketball team cruised past Towson, 70-51, at Matthews Arena on Tuesday night. The win snaps a four game losing skid for the Huskies, and improves Northeastern's record to 8-8 in CAA play and 12-14 overall heading into Saturday's Sears BracketBuster match-up against America East-leader Stony Brook.

Coming off a career-high 21 points against William & Mary, freshman Quincy Ford scored 12 points and Jonathan Lee chipped in with 10 points and four assists in the CAA victory. Robert Nwankwo led the Tigers (1-28, 1-15) with 19 points and 13 rebounds.

Just one game after surrendering its largest point total in conference play, the Northeastern defense returned to form. The Huskies held Towson to the third-lowest point total by a conference opponent this season. In the process, Coach Bill Coen's squad collected a season-high 14 steals and scored 29 points off 19 Towson turnovers.

Towson, trailing 37-27 at the half, scored the first two points of the second half to pull to within eight, but that was as close as the visitors would come the rest of the game. A Ford free throw with 16:32 to play sparked a 14-2 run for the Huskies, giving the home side a commanding 51-31 advantage with 12:53 remaining that it never relinquished.

The Tigers scored the next four points to reduce margin to 16, but Northeastern responded quickly and increased its lead to a game-high 25 points at 66-41 with 6:28 to play. The visitors outscored Northeastern 10-4 to close out the game, putting the final tally at 70-51 as the final buzzer sounded.

Northeastern shot 45.5 percent (20-44) from the field and 56.3 percent (9-16) from beyond the arc, while posting a season-high 87.5 percent (21-24) clip from the free-throw line. The Tigers went 19-of-50 (38.0 percent) from the floor and just 3-of-13 (23.1 percent) from distance.

Trailing 6-5 to open the game, the Huskies scored eight-straight points to take a 13-6 lead behind a pair of free throws from Spencer and consecutive 3-pointers by Lee and Ford. Towson answered with back-to-back threes of its own to pull to within one at 13-12, but a 7-0 Northeastern run followed to extend the home lead to eight, 20-12. After a Towson basket cut the margin to six (20-14), the Huskies rattled off 12 of the next 14 points to push the advantage to 32-16. Outscoring the Huskies 11-5 to finish the half, Towson was able to narrow the gap to 10 at 37-27 heading into the break.

Northeastern will be back in action on Saturday at 1 p.m. when it hosts America East front-runner Stony Brook at historic Matthews Arena as part of the 10th annual Sears BracketBuster event. The Huskies are 4-2 all-time in BracketBuster games, having erased a 19-point deficit to defeat UNC Asheville, 83-82, in last season's edition. Tickets for that game are still available. Information is available online at GoNU.com/tickets.

A replay of this game is available on GoNUxstream 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
> The Northeastern defense held Towson to the third-lowest (tied) point total by a conference opponent this season
> Northeastern registered a season-high 14 steals
> The Huskies shot a season-high 87.5 percent (21-24) from the free throw line
> Northeastern had four players score in double-figures for the first time since Jan. 4 (vs. UNCW)
> Joel Smith went 5-of-8 (62.5 percent) from 3-point range; he's now made 143 career 3-pointers to move into eighth-place on the Northeastern career list
> Smith has made multiple threes in 16 games this season; he's made at least one 3-pointer in 45 of the last 48 games
> Jonathan Lee has scored in double-figures in 34 of last 38
> With 12 points, Quincy Ford has scored in double-figures in 11 of the last 14 games
> Ford tied a career high with five steals
> Reggie Spencer set new career highs for points (17) and steals (3)
> Spencer pulled down a team-best six rebounds; it's the 10th time this season that he has led the team in rebounds