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HARRISONBURG, Va. – Behind career efforts from Vasa Pusica and Shawn Occeus, the Northeastern men's basketball team defeated James Madison Saturday afternoon for their sixth-straight conference opening victory, 81-70.
 
Pusica finished with a career-high 31 points, 24 of which came in the first half, while adding five rebounds and four assists and going 10-of-14 from the free throw line in the victory for the Huskies (8-5, 1-0 CAA).
 
Occeus finished the game with a career-best 21 points, including a near-perfect night from the charity stripe (9-of-10) while adding stats to nearly every column with three assists, three rebounds, three steals and a block on the day.
 
Devon Begley finished the game with 10 points, five rebounds and three assists while Jeremy Miller added six points and nine rebounds on the day while making a clutch block down the stretch.
 
The victory marked Northeastern's sixth straight in a conference opener as they improved to 3-0 at James Madison in CAA openers (3-1 overall).
 
JMU (4-10, 0-1) was led by Stuckey Mosley, who finished with 18 points, six assists and five rebounds but shot 7-of-20 from the field, while Dwight Wilson added 13 points and eight rebounds and  Joey McLean had 12 points on the day.
 
FIRST HALF
The Huskies started off the game shooting 66.7 from the field to get out to a 24-12 lead eight-and-a-half minutes into the ballgame, led by Pusica who had 10 of those points.
 
Pusica set the tone, starting the game off with a trey and the rest of the Huskies followed suit. Shortly after checking into the game, Begley added a three of his own, and then dished a pass to Occeus who connected from the corner.
 
After Occeus created, and followed through on, and and-one opportunity, Bolden Brace added a three to notch the Huskies' 24^th point of the game.
 
A few more baskets, highlighted by an Occeus fastbreak layup forced JMU head coach Louis Rowe to call a timeout with 8:40 remaining in the first half as the Huskies took a 32-16 lead.
 
Coming out of the timeout, the Huskies briefly faltered as the Dukes went on a 16-4 run to make it a 36-32 game with 3:45 left to play.
 
But Pusica turned the jets on and scored the Huskies final eight points of the half, to finish the period with 24 points, and help Northeastern to a 44-36 halftime lead.
 
Pusica became the first Husky to score 20 or more points in the first half since Brace did so in his 40-point game last season at Elon (Feb. 23, 2017).
 
SECOND HALF
The two teams kept things interesting, and close, early in the second half. The Dukes were able to whittle down the Huskies lead to four points and make it a 53-49 game just over seven minutes into play, but Northeastern slowly and continuously built up that lead.
 
A Pusica layup, followed by a pair of free throws from Brace made it an eight-point advantage. And following a JMU free throw, a Brace three put the Huskies up by 10, 60-50 with just over 11 minutes to go.
 
Occeus' second and-one of the day, which also set a new career high for the sophomore, turned things into a 13-point game, a lead the Huskies would be able to maintain thanks to six-straight points by Miller on a dunk, a pair of free throws and layup which made it 69-54 in favor of the Huskies.
 
James Madison made things interesting down the stretch cutting the lead to six with just over two minutes to go, but Pusica, instead of trying to go up for a contested bucket, unselfishly dished a pass out to Brace on the perimeter, who got it to Begley, who drove in for the uncontested score to build on the lead.
 
Free throws down the stretch sealed it for Northeastern as Pusica's ninth free throw of the day gave him his 30^th point in the contest, and he added another on for good measure.
 
Pusica has now connected on nine-plus free throws in the last three contests for the Huskies.
 
UP NEXT
The Huskies return home for three games next week at Matthews Arena. The new year kicks off against Hofstra on Tuesday, Jan. 2 at 7 p.m. followed by a meeting with Elon on Friday, Jan. 5 at 7 p.m. and concluding on Sunday, Jan. 7, once again against the Dukes. Friday and Sunday's game are the CBS Sports Digital Game of the Week and can be found on CBSSportsLive.com.
 
FUN FACTS

• The Huskies have now had at least one 30-point scorer in the last three seasons
  • 2015-16: David Walker 3, Quincy Ford 2
  • 2016-17: T.J. Williams 3, Bolden Brace 1 (40 pts)
  • 2017-18: Vasa Pusica (today) 1
• In addition, three of those 30-point efforts have been coupled with a teammates' 20-point effort
  • Quincy Ford (30) & David Walker (26) at Elon - Dec. 31, 2015 (CAA Opener)
  • T.J. Williams (30) & Alex Murphy (20) vs. BU - Nov. 11, 2016 (Season Opener)
  • Vasa Pusica (31) & Shawn Occeus (21) at JMU - Dec. 30, 2017 (CAA Opener)