An offensive onslaught by Butler in the second and third quarters was enough to derail the Huskies’ WNIT run in the first found at the Hinkle Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. Butler defeated Northeastern handily, 89-72.

Northeastern broke out early in the first as a result of early 3-pointers by Shannon Todd and Jess Genco, setting the Huskies out to an early 12-4 lead.

Butler, who finished third in the Big East conference, showed they were not going to go down easily, however. They kept the game close at the end of one,  trailing NU, 23-17.

Butler head coach Kurt Godlevske revived his team for what would be an outstanding second period for Butler. They began the quarter with a 5-6 start from the field and evened up the contest three times in the quarter.

A 17-1 run by the Bulldogs headlined the end of the first half, as they stretched their lead over Northeastern to 16, kickstarting the run with three minutes to play in the half.

At the midway point of the game, Butler’s Whitney Jennings had a respectable 16 points to her name as her counterpart, Genco, totalled 12 at the break.

Butler kept its momentum going into the second half, knocking down three 3-pointers, two coming from marquee guard Jennings and Kristen Spolyar, who would score nine points in the third quarter alone.

Stella Clark and Ayanna Dublin were the only two scorers in the third for the Huskies, as the team went 3-14 from the field and struggled to find answers against the effective 3-2 zone set up by the Big East powerhouse.

The Bulldogs, who went 7-15 from the field in the quarter and added seven free-throws, extended their lead to 32 points with 10 minutes remaining, outscoring Northeastern 24-8 in the third with the Huskies going scoreless for 7 straight minutes.

Northeastern  redeemed itself a bit to finish off its first-ever matchup in the WNIT under its new format and closed its best season since 1999.

Genco  tallied nine points in the fourth, contributing to a 28-point final quarter for NU, outscoring the Bulldogs by 15.

Unfortunately for the Huskies, a strong finish and a strong start was not enough to make up for the demoralizing second and third quarters dominated by Butler, as Northeastern took the 17-point loss and a first-round exit in the WNIT.

In their final games for Northeastern, Genco finished with 21 points, eight assists and three rebounds, while forward Gabby Giacone finished with four points and four rebounds. Junior forward Shannon Todd rounded out her season with 13 points and 5 assists as the Huskies hit a 40.3 percent clip from the field compared to Butler’s 46 percent.

Butler’s Jennings finished the game with 29 points, and Spolyar with 21.