The Northeastern women’s basketball team (7-18, 3-12 CAA) lost to the North Carolina A&T Aggies (10-15, 5-9 CAA) in a disappointing triple overtime matchup 89-86 Feb. 20 before falling to the Elon University Phoenix (13-13, 8-6 CAA) 70-57 Feb. 22.
The game between the Aggies and the Huskies was reminiscent of their meeting earlier this year when Northeastern lost in double overtime 84-83. The teams were locked in a close battle the entire way, with the lead changing 24 times.
Sophomore forward Justice Tramble was huge for the Huskies, scoring 18 points and grabbing 21 rebounds and tying for the most rebounds in a game in Northeastern women’s basketball history. Sophomore guard Morgan Matthews, sophomore guard Camryn Collins and junior guard Yirsy Quéliz all scored double-digit points.
The Huskies took their first lead with just under two and a half minutes to go, but the Aggies quickly pulled ahead with an eight-point run before a layup by Northeastern’s sophomore forward Taylor Holohan brought the score to 23-18 to end the quarter.
Three straight 3-pointers put the Huskies ahead 27-23 to kick off the second quarter. The teams went back and forth until they exchanged two foul shots each to head into halftime with the Huskies in the lead 39-37.
NCAT tied it at 41 before both teams sank shots and exchanged the lead. The Huskies were ahead once again at 46-44 before NCAT went on a 7-0 run to end the third quarter 51-46, Aggies.
NCAT stayed ahead until, with just under three minutes gone in the fourth quarter, the lead switched eight more times. Northeastern held a narrow 68-67 lead with 21 seconds to go before the Aggies took a timeout. After missing two shots and handing the ball over to Northeastern, NCAT used another.
A costly turnover led to a steal for the Aggies and a pass to 6-foot-4 redshirt senior center Chaniya Clark, who overhead passed it from behind the 3-point line with Tramble guarding her. The ball sailed over the players, hit the corner of the square on the backboard and banked in, putting the Aggies in the lead 70-68 with 1.2 seconds to go.
As excitement erupted from NCAT’s bench, fans and players, Northeastern players’ jaws dropped. It seemed to be the nail in the coffin, but the Huskies were unrelenting. Collins dribbled through traffic and let the ball fly out of her hands, tying the game at 70 and forcing overtime.
Overtime started slow, with the first basket coming a minute and a half in off a wide-open layup, putting the Aggies in the lead 72-70. Just eight seconds later, Quéliz was fouled and sank both attempts, tying it at 72. Over a minute and a half later, Tramble scored a putback layup to put Northeastern ahead with less than two minutes to go.
After NCAT missed an attempt, Tramble was fouled but missed both attempts from the line, providing the Aggies the opportunity to get back in the game. NCAT took advantage and sank a layup to tie it with 30 seconds left.
Matthews made a shot at the buzzer off balance that immediately electrified the Northeastern bench. It seemed like the Huskies finally had their revenge from the teams’ last matchup, but the play went under review. On the replay, the shot was before the buzzer, leaving the Huskies to believe they were about to earn their first consecutive wins since Nov. 22 and 25, 2025.
Unfortunately, the Huskies just could not catch a break, as there was a 0.5 second difference between the shot clock and the end of time. The call was overturned as a shot clock violation and gave the Aggies back the ball.
To make matters worse, Northeastern’s top scorer, Collins, fell on the play and hit her head on the hardwood. As her teammates celebrated what they thought to be their win, she got up slowly, grasping the back of her head. She was then seen with an ice pack on the back of her head during the game and was out of the next game for “head injury protocol,” according to the broadcasters of Sunday’s game.
Clark once again showed up big for NCAT, making a layup to kick off scoring. Northeastern scored three straight points to take a lead with less than two minutes to go before the Aggies hit a jumper. Tramble scored a layup, but with 39 seconds left, the Aggies took the last point to tie the score off a costly foul shot.
Triple overtime was the highest scoring of the extra periods. A layup for Tramble started the quarter before the Aggies took five straight points to lead 84-80. A three for Matthews cut the lead to one before the Aggies hit a jumper to go back to a three-point lead.
With 34 seconds left, Matthews tied it with a layup. Unfortunately for Northeastern, Clark shot another 3-pointer with 11 seconds left in what would be the last shot of the night and the gamewinner for the Aggies.
The game against Elon was not the same back-and-forth match as Feb. 20. With their leading scorer out, the Huskies had a big gap to fill, and Elon’s play style only made things more difficult. The Phoenix would have full line changes to keep legs fresh and keep the Huskies on their toes about who to guard and attack. Forty-one of Elon’s 70 points came off the bench.
Tramble was once again the Huskies’ top point scorer, this time with 12 points as the only player to reach double digits for Northeastern. Sophomore forward Maya Summerville led the team in rebounds with six.
The Huskies were dominated in second-chance points, points off turnovers and rebounds and shot a weak 28.8% through the first three quarters.
The first quarter demonstrated a lack of disciplined play between the teams, racking up 11 turnovers collectively. Luckily, neither team was able to get ahead as they both failed to capitalize on each other’s mistakes, each only scoring two points off turnovers. Still, Northeastern was successful in getting through Elon’s press and drew more fouls. The first quarter ended with Elon narrowly ahead 13-10.
An and-one by sophomore guard María Sánchez Pitarch in just her sixth attempt from the line all season tied the game at 13. The teams exchanged two points each to tie at 15 before Elon took seven of the next nine to lead 22-17. The second quarter headed into a media timeout with Elon’s lead cut to 24-20 off a layup by sophomore center Alyssa Staten.
Out of the timeout, the teams were scoreless for over a minute until Staten struck again, this time with an and-one. An Elon layup was answered with three straight Northeastern foul shots, but a 7-0 for the Phoenix at the end sent the teams into halftime with the score 33-25.
With two and a half minutes gone in the third quarter, the Phoenix started a 13-point run that included three straight 3-pointers to lead 48-29. The Huskies had a mini-run with six straight, but the third quarter ended 50-37.
The fourth quarter was the highest scoring of the game and the only time Northeastern wasn’t outscored. After Northeastern hit a layup 30 seconds in, Elon answered with one a minute and 10 seconds in.
Over the next three and a half minutes, the teams went coast to coast without a single missed shot or many set plays ran with 12 layups scored between them. The scoring streak took a pause as a media timeout was called with the Phoenix in the lead 64-51.
In what had been the longest drought of the quarter, the teams went 35 seconds without scoring out of the timeout before Elon scored consecutive layups. Northeastern took six of the next eight points, but it was too late for the Huskies to make a comeback as they took their fifth straight loss on the road, 70-57.
The Huskies are back in action Feb. 27 on the road against the Drexel University Dragons (17-8, 10-4 CAA), who they lost to 65-56 earlier this season.
