Box Score


BOSTON—Despite a career night from senior center Jewel Tunstull, the Northeastern women's basketball team (7-9, 1-2 CAA) could not hang on as Colonial Athletic Association newcomer College of Charleston (10-7, 3-1 CAA) took advantage from beyond the arc for a 90-74 victory over the Huskies on Sunday afternoon at Cabot Center.

Tunstull notched her league-leading eighth double-double to lead the Huskies with a career-best 25 points and 10 rebounds. The lone-senior was presented a basketball during a pregame ceremony to honor her 1,000-career point mark. Tunstull became just the 17th member of the Northeastern 1,000-point club when she accomplished the feat against Massachusetts on Dec. 21. The Northeastern women's basketball alumnae were also recognized during a halftime presentation.

Junior A'lece Mark and sophomore Samantha DeFreese joined Tunstull in double-figures with 18 and 14 points, respectively. DeFreese added nine rebounds, just one shy of her third career double-double. Amencie Mercier collected six points and just as many assists, while Tiffany Montagne and Kazzidy Stewart tallied 11 points, collectively, to close out the scoring column for Northeastern.

Alyssa Frye set the pace for Charleston and led all scorers with 34 points. The guard tallied 10 3-point field goals to tie a CAA individual game record.  Afreyea Tolbert and Mikaela Hopkins posted 18 points a piece for the Cougars.

The Huskies were strong out of the chute, posting an early 5-0 lead, but Charleston was quick to match it with five points of its own. NU held all the momentum early on as Tunstull and Mark drained back-to-back layups to go ahead 9-5. Northeastern's lead did not last long before the Cougars used a 14-0 run for a double-digit advantage just eight minutes into play.

A trey from Montagne and Stewart slowed CofC's offense and brought the Huskies within five, but Charleston pushed its way back to a double-figure lead, 28-17, with a 9-2 surge. 

Over the next thee minutes, Charleston played lights out from the perimeter and collected four 3-pointers for a 43-27 advantage and the largest lead of the half. Mark attempted to close the gap with a trey, but a layup from Tolbert closed out the first half, 45-30.

CofC entered the second half just as strong as it extended its lead to 20 with 18:01 on the clock, 54-34.  The Cougars maintained at least a 16 point advantage over the next six minutes before a DeFreese jumper triggered a 9-2 run for the Huskies to invade Charleston's cushion to nine, 70-61.

The Huskies closed the gap to single-digits once again in the 34th minute, highlighted by six points from Tunstull, but a 13-4 run sealed the deal for the Cougars, 90-74.

For the game, the Huskies connected on 39 percent (24-69) of their shots, including 26 percent from 3-point range (8-31) and 82 percent (18-22) from the charity stripe. Charleston shot 59 percent (33-56) from the floor, 68 percent (13-19) from beyond the arc and 92 percent (11-12) from the free-throw line. Each team pulled down 36 rebounds.

The Huskies return to action on Thursday, Jan. 23, when they host Hofstra at 7 p.m. Tickets are available at GoNU.com/tickets.

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