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WILMINGTON, N.C.  – A hot second half was not enough for the Northeastern men's basketball team to overcome a 23-point halftime deficit as the Huskies fell to UNCW 74-65 at Trask Coliseum Saturday afternoon.
 
T.J. Williams had a game-high 24 points for the Huskies in the loss, his 18^th 20-point effort of the season, adding four rebounds and four assists on the day.
 
Anthony Green was one rebound shy of his second-straight double-double with 10 points and nine rebounds while Bolden Brace added 12 points, six boards and four assists following his heroic 40-point effort on Thursday. Maxime Boursiquot added three points, nine rebounds and a pair of steals on the day.
 
UNCW (26-5, 15-3) was led by C.J. Bryce who had 23 points on the day going 3-for-3 from deep while senior Chris Flemmings had 19 points and six rebounds on senior day.  
 
UNCW got out to a 15-0 start to the ballgame and never looked back in the first half of action. The Huskies got on the board at the 13:17 mark on a Williams jumper and the Northeastern senior would go on to score the first 14 points of the game for the Huskies via four field goals and six free throws. Maxime Boursiquot became the second Husky to score on the day with a three from the top of the key as time was winding down in the half.
 
As Northeastern shot just 19.2 from the field in the first half on 5-of-26 shooting, UNCW finished the half shooting 57.1 percent knocking down 16 shots, including five from deep en route to a 40-17 halftime lead.
 
Just like the last time out against the Seahawks, the Huskies made it a game in the second half turning a 24-point UNCW lead into a five-point ballgame using a 21-2 run, including a 15-0 spurt over a less than four-minute span where Shawn Occeus tallied nine of his 13 points on the day.
 
T.J. Williams jumpstarted the stretch with a free throw, following his miss of his second attempt up with an offensive rebound where he was fouled once again heading back to the line for two more.
 
An Anthony Green dunk made it an 18-point game and after C.J. Bryce laid one in, Occeus responded with a layup of his own then followed that with a pair of fastbreak dunks to make it an eight-point game.  Occeus hit his first three in six games from the corner to cut the lead to just five.
 
But the Seahawks burst back out to an 11-point lead in the next 50 seconds and though the Huskies were able to cut it to four with just over a minute to go, UNCW hung on, making their free throws, to earn the 74-65 victory.
 
The Huskies will return to action in the CAA Championship next week in Charleston, S.C. The Huskies have locked up the No. 6 seed and first round bye and will face No. 3 Towson in the Quarterfinals of the tournament on Saturday, March 4. The game will be the final game of the day and will kick off at 8:30 p.m on Comcast SportsNet.