BOSTON – William Kermoury (31) and Xavier Abreu (22) combined for 53 points, and the Northeastern men's basketball team (6-11, 2-4) forced Elon (11-7, 3-2) into 18 turnovers en route to a gritty 85-78 victory in front of a raucous Cabot Center crowd on Thursday night.
 
Kermoury set a new career-high for the third time this season and second straight game, becoming the second Husky this season to reach the 30-point plateau. He finished 11-of-18 from the field, the fourth different Husky to hit at least 10 shots in a game this season, while his 7-of-12 performance from distance were the most for a Husky since 2021 and tied for the sixth most in Northeastern single-game history.
 
With just nine healthy players available in the game, Northeastern led by as many as 19 in the first half before finding itself in a dog fight down the stretch. The Phoenix would go on to hold a seven-point lead with 8:16 left, 72-65, before Abreu went to work. The rookie scored 18 of his 22 points in the second half, including a string of 14 straight Northeastern points over a nearly seven-minute span capped by a thunderous dunk in transition with 2:37 left, to give the Huskies the lead for good.
 
NU finished 33-of-71 from the field, its most attempts of the season, including an 11-of-30 clip from three. The Huskies also recorded 19 assists on the 33 makes, including a career-high nine from Mike Loughnane, while converting 18 Elon turnovers into 29 points at the other end.
 
The Phoenix, meanwhile, shot 49% in the game and 48% from three, led by 26 points from Bryson Cokley as one of three Elon players in double figures.
 
Northeastern came out firing, hitting eight of its first 12 shots and going on a 20-0 run over more than six minutes to hold a 25-6 lead just 8:20 into the game. Kermoury paced the Huskies with 16 points on 6-of-9 shooting (4-of-6 from three), while Luca Soroa Schaller added six for an NU squad that finished the half 17-ofd-39 overall along with 10 assists and eight steals.
 
The Phoenix hung tough though, using a 50% shooting performance from three to claw back into it, including a 15-2 run to climb back within single digits before trailing by just two at the break, 41-39. Cokley had 14 for Elon the first.
 
Elon started the second half 11-of-13 from the field to remain within striking distance, not allowing Northeastern to pull ahead by more than five points over the first nine minutes of the half before a quick 7-0 run gave the Phoenix its first lead since early in the first with a three from Cokley to make it 65-63 Phoenix with 11:02 left.
 
It was back and forth from there before Abreu singlehandedly erased the seven-point deficit to give the Huskies the lead late before NU hit five of their last six from the stripe to put it away.
 
The Huskies will be back in action on Monday when Northeastern travels to Monmouth. Tip-off is scheduled for 11 a.m. on the CBS Sports Network.