Box Score | Postgame Notes | Infographic 



ELON, N.C. – Led by Quincy Ford, who registered his first career 30-point game, the Northeastern men's basketball team downed Elon 86-79 Thursday afternoon at Alumni Gym to earn its fourth consecutive CAA opening win.
 
Ford finished the game with a career-high 30 points, along with eight rebounds and six assists on a season-high 10 field goals, including five from behind the arc, to help the Huskies improve to 9-5 on the season and 1-0 in conference play.
 
He was aided by David Walker, who notched his first career double-double with 26 points and 12 rebounds while also tallying five assists on the day. Walker was 10-of-12 from the free throw line.
 
Zach Stahl rounded out the double-digit scorers finishing with 14 points on the day, including 10 in the first half.
 
Elon (9-4, 0-1 CAA) was led by Luke Eddy who finished with 27 points and five assists.
 
Northeastern jumped out to an early 18-6 lead that began on a couple of Stahl jumpers and capped off by four straight 3-pointers by Ford, Jeremy Miller and back-to-back treys by Walker less than six minutes into the game.
 
But Elon clawed their way back into the game using a 16-4 run of its own over the following eight minutes to take its first lead of the game 25-24 on a Tanner Samson layup with 6:56 remaining in the first.
 
Elon used a trey to gain a four-point lead but Ford matched the shot on the other end. The Phoenix went ahead once again by four but the Huskies chipped away at the charity stripe, a perfect 5-for-5 in the first half.
 
With Elon up by three with a minute remaining in the half, Northeastern cut into the lead with a Walker layup making it a one-point game. After an Elon miss with less than five seconds remaining in the half, Walker dished the ball up the court to Donnell Gresham Jr. who drove straight to the basket and was fouled going up. Gresham calmly went to the line for his first career free throws, sinking both, to send the Huskies to the locker room with a 40-39 halftime lead.
 
In the second half, both teams went back-and-forth for the first five minutes of play until the Huskies went on 13-0 run during a three-minute stretch to break the game wide open and take a 14-point lead it would never relinquish over the Phoenix.
 
Northeastern gained its lead behind three straight threes via a Ford-Walker-Ford combo while holding Elon to no baskets from the field for nearly a seven-minute stretch.
 
The Phoenix fought until the end, fouling the Huskies and then connecting on baskets on the offensive end of the court, but Northeastern's free throw shooting, a season-high tying 24 free throws made on 29 attempts kept the Huskies ahead and helped them to the victory.
 
Northeastern will return to action in the new year when they close out their North Carolina swing at UNCW on Saturday, January 2 at 6 p.m. The game will be broadcast by the American Sports Network and can be found locally on NESN and NESNPlus. 

Postgame Notes

• Northeastern improves to 9-5 on the season and 1-0 in conference play
• The Huskies have begun the year 1-0 in the CAA for the fourth straight year
• Northeastern is now 7-4 all-time in CAA openers and 24-15 all-time in conference openers
• Northeastern improves to 2-1 all-time against Elon
• The win was the first in the state of North Carolina for the Huskies since an 83-82 win over UNC Asheville on Feb. 19, 2011
• The victory was Northeastern's first road win since defeating No. 15 Miami 78-77 on Nov. 27
• Quincy Ford tallied his first career 30-point game in the victory
• His 30 points were a career high, besting his previous best of 27 set on Nov. 13, 2012 at Princeton.
• Ford's 10 made field goals were a season-best
• Ford also finished the game with eight rebounds, his fourth consecutive game with exactly eight rebounds
• Ford has now tallied double-digits in 14 straight games
• David Walker earned his first career double-double in the victory on 26 points and a career-high 12 rebounds
• The 12 rebounds marked the first time Walker notched double-digit rebounds in his Northeastern career besting his previous career-high of 8 set three times, last at Miami (OH) on Nov. 22, 2015
• Walker and Ford mark the first duo to each have a 30-point game in the same season since Jose Juan Barea and Marcus Barnes did so in the 2003-04 season. Both Barnes and Barea finished with three 30-point games that season
• Ford's 30 and Walker's 26 marked the first time two players had 30 and 20 points in a game since Nov. 20, 2004 when Jose Juan Barea had 35 and Marcus Barnes had 23 against Cornell