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BOSTON – Remaining neck-and-neck with James Madison for the better portion of the first half, the Northeastern women's basketball team let its foot off the gas just long enough for the Dukes to take control of Sunday's game as the Huskies ended the weekend at Cabot Center with a 67-49 defeat.
 
Jumping into the starting rotation for the first time since Dec. 18, 2015, Maureen Taggart played brilliantly, hitting three shots from behind the arc while coasting to an 11-point, four-rebound, and three-assist performance. The Wallingford, Vermont, native finished second in scoring for the Huskies behind Claudia Ortiz, who dropped 15 points and eight rebounds to lead Northeastern (7-16, 3-8 CAA) in both categories.
 
Gabby Giacone and Francesca Sally each trickled in three baskets apiece – Sally draining two of her's from downtown – as the Huskies' low-post duo tallied nine and eight points, respectively. Sally added six rebounds to her stat line, as did Genco, who also dished out five assists.
 
Precious Hall scored 23 of her game high, 29 points, for James Madison (16-6, 9-2 CAA) during the first half. Hall netted five 3-pointers for the Dukes and made seven of her eight attempts within the perimeter. Logan Reynolds followed Hall with 10 points on four-of-eight shooting.
 
Northeastern kept pace with JMU during the first quarter, matching the Dukes' 50 percent shooting clip from the field. After Hall buried her second 3-pointer of the game with 6:22 to play during the quarter, the Huskies went on an 8-0 run during the next minute and 28 seconds, taking a 10-8 lead into the first media timeout. 
 
Despite a furious scoring pace set by James Madison, NU held its ground, benefitting from a pair of 3-point makes by Taggart and Sally to cut the score back to one at 17-16. Taggart tacked on another layup before the opening quarter had ended, maintaining the Huskies' one-point deficit at 19-18.
 
Although Ortiz's bucket with 5:47 remaining in the second quarter brought Northeastern within one possession again at 24-22, James Madison began to pull away before halftime, assembling a 19-4 run to close the period.
 
Despite committing only four turnovers during the second half, the Huskies were only able to lower the Dukes' lead as far as 13 points with 5:10 to go in the third quarter.
 
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Northeastern will travel to Elon on Friday, Feb. 10, for a 7 p.m. CAA matchup.