By Justin Clear-Vekinis, News Correspondent
The Northeastern women’s basketball team went into Sunday’s game having blown a 19 point lead on Thursday against the University of North Carolina Wilmington. They finished with a 82-71 victory over William & Mary for their first win in five games.“We started the game hot,” senior guard Jamie Conroy said. “We just started missing shots and weren’t getting offensive rebounds against them.”
The big fear was that the Huskies wouldn’t have the energy after such a loss, but they defied expectations and pulled out an 11 point win over the William & Mary Tribe, breaking a school record and two personal records along the way.
Conroy matched, and then broke, Northeastern’s assists per game record 16 assists on the day, breaking the previous record of 12.
“Shattered, I like that,” associate head coach Tom Blake said. “Jamie’s the kind of player that, if we had made shots against Wilmington, would probably have had 10-12 assists.”
Junior guard Deanna Kerkhof, continued her points run with a career-high 29 points. Kerkhof led all scorers in the game and has led the Huskies in scoring in six of the last seven games.
“She’s terrific,” Blake said. “Just terrific.”
Kerkhof broke her previous career-high of 25 points, with 15 points coming from beyond the arc. Kerkhof also knocked down six of six from the free throw line.
Sophomore forward Jewel Tunstull had a career-high 22 points on the day.
“Our offense is run through Jewel,” Conroy said. “Either she gets it and scores, or they double or triple team her and she passes it off for a three.”
Tunstull has scored in double digits the past two games, first leading the Huskies in scoring at UNCW with 20 points and then putting up 22 points Sunday.
It wasn’t just on the Northeastern side that records were smashed, junior Tribe guard Janine Aldridge dropped nine three pointers on the day to become the Tribes all-time record holder for three-pointers with 204.
The Northeastern team came storming out of the gate after capturing the lead two minutes into the first half.
The Huskies then continued on a 14-4 run to keep the lead out of the Tribe’s reach.
Despite numerous attempts at comebacks, even after the Tribe brought the gap to just five points with eight minutes to play, the Huskies remained dominant.
They responded with a second 14-4 run again in the second half to seal the game. The Huskies ended the threat of any possible come back with a nailed three-pointer to keep the lead in double digits at the end.
The Huskies travel to Atlanta, Thursday to take on the Georgia State Panthers. The Panthers have yet to win a conference game, sitting at the bottom of the league with an 0-9 record in the Colonial Athletic Association.
“Georgia State hasn’t won a league game yet,” Blake said. “I told the team after [Sunday’s game], we have to take what we did here and put it in our luggage and bring it to Georgia with us.”
