The Northeastern women’s basketball team (2-20, 1-12 CAA) secured a comeback win against the Hofstra University Pride (9-15, 4-9 CAA) Feb. 16 for their first conference and home win of the season, 61-51. 

The Huskies were led in scoring by redshirt sophomore guard Abby Jegede with 20 points. Sophomore guard Yirsy Quéliz and senior guard Camille Clement were also huge scorers for Northeastern with 14 and 12 points respectively. Freshman forward Alyssa Staten dominated under the rim with 12 rebounds and seven points. 

The first quarter was full of undisciplined play for both teams with a total of 14 turnovers, leading to plenty of back-and-forth action. 

Despite Northeastern winning the tip, an immediate turnover put the ball back into the hands of Hofstra. Clement managed to get a steal off Hofstra, but a missed shot gave the ball back to the Pride and gave them the first points of the game off a jumper. With two minutes down in the quarter, Jegede hit a three-pointer for Northeastern’s first points and put the Huskies up 3-2. 

Hofstra added a layup before there were three consecutive turnovers between the teams, the last being a Northeastern steal that led to a three-pointer for Clement. After the shot, Hofstra called a timeout to get themselves in order with Northeastern ahead 6-4. 

Although the Pride followed up the timeout with a turnover, giving Northeastern a successful layup, Hofstra then lit up. It went on an eight-point streak until it was finally broken up with a Northeastern three-pointer to bring the score to 12-11 Hofstra with 2:46 left in the quarter. 

After a minute of no scoring, both added four points each to end the quarter 16-15 with Hofstra on top. 

Despite Northeastern’s play being more disciplined in the second quarter, with only two turnovers to Hofstra’s four, its struggles came from trouble getting shots to fall. 

The second quarter opened up with a three-pointer by Hofstra, but Quéliz quickly fired off a jumper to put the score at 19-17. Northeastern added two points off foul shots by Jegede and Staten to tie it up at 19-19 with seven minutes remaining.

It seemed as if each shot was immediately answered by the other team until Hofstra hit back-to-back shots to go up 31-26. Two foul shots for each team left the score at 33-28 at the end of the quarter. 

Out of halftime, Northeastern was on fire. Clement hit a foul shot and redshirt junior guard Natalie Larrañaga hit a jumper to cut Hofstra’s lead to 34-30. 

Both teams exchanged layups before Clement hit another three-pointer and Staten sank a layup, giving the Huskies the lead 37-36 and firing up the Cabot Center.

Hofstra tied the game back up off a foul shot, but back-to-back layups by Jegede put the Huskies back up 41-37 with over four minutes remaining. 

The Pride again fought back and tied it up, but another steal for Northeastern led to a jumper by Quéliz, which gave the Huskies the lead 43-41 in the final moments of the quarter. 

Up by two with a quarter left, Cabot was full of anticipation for the Huskies’ chance to pick up their first home win.

Right at the start of the quarter, the Huskies set the tone with a steal and a three-pointer to kick off an 11-point scoring streak, increasing their lead to 54-41 with just over half of the quarter remaining. 

Hofstra scored off a jumper, but Jegede fired off two foul shots to cancel out the Pride’s gain. Although the Huskies came out strong in the beginning of the quarter, Hofstra wasn’t done fighting yet. They went on a six-point streak of their own to cut Northeastern’s lead to 56-49 with over two minutes to go. 

Quéliz was sent to the line and made one of her shots before Hofstra hit another layup. With just under a minute to go, Quéliz was sent to the line twice and sunk both her shots each time, and the Huskies could barely keep the smiles off their faces. After a missed shot by Hofstra and a steal for Northeastern, the Huskies let the clock run out and secured their first win at Cabot since last season, March 3, 2024. 

The Huskies hope to start a winning streak against the Towson Tigers (8-16, 6-7 CAA) at home Feb. 21 at 7 p.m.