The Northeastern women’s basketball team brought their home winning streak to seven with a nail-biting finish to yet another home weekend sweep. The Huskies entered the game tied for third in the CAA standings with Towson and the win today gave coach Kelly Cole her greatest nine-game CAA start since she started coaching for Northeastern. 

The opening frame was near-fatal for the Huskies (10-10, 6-3 CAA) as NU sophomore forward Alexis Hill scored the lone basket. UNCW (6-14, 3-6 CAA) went on a 10-0 run over seven minutes, forcing numerous turnovers and incomplete passes. The Huskies needed to find some way to score, as they shot just 11 percent and trailed 14-2. 

Luckily, sophomore guard Kendall Currence ended the severe drought with an opening triple, showing signs of life for NU. Hill then followed it up with a steal converted to a layup. Although still down, the Huskies continued to claw away at the lead, with freshman forward Mide Oriyomi stealing the ball and converting the layup. 

“We were struggling in the first quarter, but coach kept telling us to have that ‘not give up mentality’ and I think we brought that in the quarters following. We knew that they were going to come out hard but we had to protect our house”, said Currence

Currence pounced on a pass to no man’s land by UNCW and evaded the defenders with an impeccable spin move that left the Huskies down only a basket. With an amazing 19-point quarter by NU, the Huskies were only down, 25-21. 

This proved to be the quarter that NU needed as senior guard Shannon Todd hit another opening triple, leaving them down only a point. A basket by the Husky sparkplug, Currence, gave the Huskies their first lead of the game. A steal by junior guard Stella Clark padded the new Husky lead who ended the third quarter up, 43-37.

The Huskies continued to increase the lead in the fourth quarter with a tough fought and-one by Currence. However, a technical foul on Hill after a call for a foul gave UNCW four free points from the charity stripe leaving them within three. A bucket by UNCW left the Huskies down by a point with 28 seconds to play. Todd hit the last-second triple, which allowed the Huskies to stay on top for good, 63-61. 

Double-digit scorers for the Huskies included Currence (23) who set a new personal season-high, Hill (10), May (10), Todd (10). Currence also led the way in rebounds (8) and steals (4) playing 38 minutes, breaking all previous records for herself. 

“Kendall [Currence] had a fantastic game, she’s one of those kids that’s just waiting to break that ceiling, a ceiling that she’s capped herself with,” said Cole.  “She’s a great scorer, but we needed her to do more, boards, assists, get to the foul line, steal the ball and she decided that this week that that was what she was going to do.”

The Huskies are now solely third in standings as Towson (10-10, 5-4 CAA) lost to Delaware (7-13, 3-6 CAA). 

NU continues the second half of their four home game stretch against Delaware on Friday at 7 p.m. followed by CAA-leading Drexel (15-6, 8-1 CAA) Sunday at 2 p.m., both in Cabot Center.