BOSTON – Youri Fritz tied a career-high with 21 points, and the Northeastern men's basketball team (5-10, 1-3) went toe-to-toe against the defending CAA champion before UNCW (15-2, 4-0) escaped with an 87-78 victory on Thursday night at the Cabot Center.
 
Trailing by four at the break, the Huskies battled throughout the second half and led 68-66 with five minutes left before the Seahawks outscored NU 21-10 down the stretch to earn the win, with 16 of their 30 total makes from the free throw line coming in the final 4:37.
 
Fritz finished the night 8-of-9 from the floor as the Huskies shot 48% overall (29-of-61) and 6-of-21 from long range. He was joined in double figures by Xavier Abreu (15 points on 7-of-15), while William Kermoury and Ryan Williams both added nine points.
 
UNCW, meanwhile, was paced by 19 points from Patrick Wessler to lead five Seahawks in double figures. They finished 25-of-57 as a team from the field, 7-of-19 from distance and 30-of-34 from the line.
 
It was a back-and-forth opening half as the teams jockeyed for position before UNCW took a 44-40 edge into the break. Northeastern had it going early, with Kermoury burying his first two threes of the night to put the Huskies ahead in the opening minutes. Northeastern shot 56% overall in the half, getting nine points from Kermoury and 10 from Abreu off the bench, while Fritz added eight including a thunderous dunk late in the half.
 
UNCW took control midway through the half, using runs of 14-4 and 11-3 to lead by as many as nine before a 7-0 Huskies run trimmed the deficit to just four. Wessler led the way with 14 points.
 
An 11-3 Northeastern run over nearly six minutes, capped by a bucket from Mike Loughnane (seven points, six assists), erased the deficit and put the Huskies up 51-49 lead with 12:41 to play. The teams would go punch for punch from there, with eight ties and eight lead changes in the second half alone before a 10-2 UNCW run, with most of the damage done at the free throw line, would put the visitors up by six with 2:19 left, 2:19.
 
An Abreu triple from the corner cut it to a three-point gap with less than two minutes to play, but the Seahawks once again got it done at the stripe and closed the game on a 11-5 run to ice it.
 
The Huskies will be back in action on Saturday when Northeastern hosts Towson. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m. on NESN and FloCollege.