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BOSTON – Behind 20 points from Vasa Pusica, while holding Elon to just 18 first-half points, the Northeastern men's basketball team cruised to a wire-to-wire, 72-60 victory over the Phoenix Friday night at Matthews Arena.
 
The Huskies (9-6, 2-1 CAA) led by 21 points at the half, but a 25-10 Elon run to begin the second half cut that to just a six-point lead midway through the stanza.
 
The Phoenix (10-6, 2-1) were able to whittle the lead down to as little as four twice in the second half, but a Shawn Occeus dunk brought the Husky offense to life as they were able to come away with the 12-point win.
 
Pusica not only tallied 20 points behind 7-of-14 shooting, 4-of-6 from behind the arc, but he added four rebounds, four assists and a pair of steals on the night for the Huskies. Devon Begley added to the Huskies total and filled up the stat sheet with 12 points (6-for-6 from the free throw line), five rebounds, four assists and four steals.
 
Maxime Boursiquot finished with his second double-digit scoring effort of the season with 10 points and five rebounds while Occeus added nine points and a pair of fastbreak dunks down the stretch that helped the Huskies seal the win.
 
Elon was led by Dmitri Thompson who had 19 points and six rebounds, but committed five of Elon's 19 turnovers on the night, while Tyler Seibring came alive in the second half to record 17 points and four rebounds.
 
FIRST HALF
After the Huskies won the tip, Donnell Gresham Jr. put one up with time winding down, and after the shot missed, he gathered his own rebound and put it back for the first bucket of the game. Boursiquot added a steal and fastbreak layup, and following back-to-back shots from Pusica via a three and jumper, Elon called a timeout with the Huskies holding an 11-2 advantage.
 
Coming out of the break, the Huskies netted back-to-back threes from Gresham and Shawn Occeus to make it a 17-2 ballgame heading into the first media.
 
After a couple Elon baskets, Anthony Green threw one down for his 20^th dunk of the season. After a layup by Elon's Sheldon Eberhardt at the 12:25 mark, the Huskies held the Phoenix without a field goal for nine minutes and 14 seconds, going on a 13-2 run including treys from Bolden Brace and Begley, and a three-point play from Boursiquot to make it a 32-10 ball-game.
 
The two teams went basket for basket down the stretch with Elon finishing the half out with three-straight free throws to make it a 39-18 ball game after 20 minutes.
 
Elon is the first team the Huskies have held to under 20 points in a half this season and the first since Delaware was held to 18 one year ago today. In that game, the Huskies started out on a 27-2 run.
 
The Huskies started the night off going 5-for-9 from deep, before finishing the first half 6-of-16 while Elon was just 1-of-6 during the stanza.
 
SECOND HALF
The Phoenix started the second half off on a 13-2 run, including a 9-0 stretch that forced Northeastern head coach Bill Coen to call a timeout with 15:19 to go in the half and the Huskies up by 10, 41-31.
 
 A Bolden Brace three, off of a no-look pass from Occeus ended that spurt but Elon continued on a 7-0 run, eventually expanding that to a 25-10 run to begin the second half.
 
A Begley three was followed by a Dainan Swoope three and Elon called a timeout with 10-and-a-half minutes to go. Out of the timeout, the Phoenix made it a four-point game but a Pusica steal, of which he smartly kicked a deep pass out to Occeus for the slam, gave the Huskies a cushion and a kickstart to their offense.
 
Back-to-back treys by Boursiquot and Pusica made it a 10-point ballgame, 57-47, and the Huskies eventually extended that to a 13-point game with just under four minutes to go.
 
Elon fought to the finish getting back within four points, with 46 seconds to go, but the Huskies made all of their free throws down the stretch, and for the second-consecutive game, to seal the win.
 
UP NEXT
The Huskies look to wrap up their three-game homestand with another win and a Sunday matinee against James Madison at 2 p.m. as the CBS Sports Digital Game of the Week on CBSSportsLive.com.