The Northeastern women’s basketball team had a picture-perfect weekend against UNC Wilmington, completing the sweep Sunday 78-58 and winning three straight games. This game also marked the second Play4Kay game that Northeastern has competed in this season. 

“It was a great weekend and we had some great individual performances but the bottom line was that it was a great team effort,” head coach Kelly Cole said. 

To start the game, NU (6-11, 5-9 CAA) took an early lead, one that was never given up. The newly crowned “queen of triples” freshman guard Maddie Vizza made a trey to give the Huskies a 7-0 run. A seniors-only play that started with a steal in the UNCW (3-12, 0-9 CAA) paint by senior guard Stella Clark found the hands of graduate student Ayanna Dublin who made an easy layup. Clark stole the ball again, but this time found Vizza who finished to take the 18-7 lead with two minutes left to play. The Huskies ended the first frame with an explosive 23 points to UNCW’s 12. 

Sophomore forward Oriyomi cleaned up junior guard Kendall Currence’s shot as she stopped the Seahawks’ 5-0 run to start the second frame. Clark hit another triple, giving NU a 12-point lead. Despite UNCW sneaking close, the Huskies stayed ahead into the break, leading 36-30. 

The Huskies’ fire could not be contained as they went on an 8-2 opening run to start the second half, forcing UNCW to take an early timeout. Sophomore guard Mossi Staples found the bottom of the net after an awkward sideline shot that beat the buzzer.

It was another night for triples as Clark buried her fourth three-pointer of the game, padding the lead. The efforts of Clark, Oriyomi, Vizza and Currence helped tie the season-high for made triples, knocking down 13, keeping NU at 52% for three-pointers for the night. They even won the rebounding game with 37 over UNCW’s 34. 

“We’ve talked about rebounds all year long and they’ve been an Achilles’ heel for us,” Cole said. “We’ve spent a lot of time working boards and box-outs and tonight we got both offensive and defensive boards.” 

With the 54-45 lead heading into the final 10 minutes of play, NU had another explosive quarter with 24 points to win the game, 78-58. With a little over two minutes left to play, Oriyomi earned her second consecutive and fifth overall double-double of the season, Clark tied her career-high of 28 points and the team as a whole scored their season-high in points.

Key players for the Huskies this game included Clark with 28 points, four rebounds and nine assists, Oriyomi with 19 points and 12 rebounds and Vizza with 12 points going 4-for-9 on triple attempts. 

NU will return back to Cabot Center Saturday, Feb. 27 at 2 p.m. for a home-and-away series against Hofstra University (6-10, 4-6 CAA) before traveling to Hempstead Tuesday, March 2 to end the regular season and head into CAA tournament play.