BOSTON — Put simply, Friday night’s game against Elon was a disaster for Northeastern. The Huskies ended the first quarter ahead of the Phoenix 16-12 thanks to an early 7-0 run despite turning the ball over five times, a foreshadowing of the catastrophic game to come.
Both Northeastern and Elon sat at 4-7 in CAA conference standings, and the game was a crucial determiner for CAA conference seeding. The Huskies defeated the Phoenix earlier in the month and looked to make it a season series sweep. Unfortunately for Northeastern, immense scoring droughts and trouble rebounding contributed to the Huskies’ concerning 53-37 loss on Black History Month night.
“There’s no way to work on energy. That comes from within,” said Northeastern coach Priscilla Edwards-Lloyd. “I told them I was embarrassed by their effort. I thought they played hard for about three or four minutes and then quit, quite frankly. So there’s no way to work on that. Either you have it, or you don’t.”
In the first period, NU executed full-court pressure on Elon, putting stress on an already short-handed team. Both teams dressed only eight players, as the injury bug has also caught up to the Phoenix. Despite their first-quarter success, the Huskies abandoned the pressure in the second quarter, and Elon’s offense awoke.
“That was also during the stretch where we actually were playing hard,” Edwards-Lloyd said when asked about the full-court pressure.
The Phoneix offense came alive in the second period and notched 17 points as Elon outrebounded NU 10-7, supplying the Phoenix with multiple opportunities for second-chance points. At the same time, Northeastern fell into their first scoring drought of many and entered the half trailing Elon 30-28.
Similar to their forgetful defeat Sunday against Stony Brook, NU scored less than 10 points across two periods of play — on Friday, the Huskies notched just seven points across the third and fourth quarters combined. In the third period, Northeastern shot a rough 1-12 from the floor and began a seven-minute scoring drought that extended from the final three minutes of the quarter into the first four minutes of the final period of play.
Entering the night, Northeastern scored 50 points in just one of their past five games. Unfortunately, that statistic now extends to six as the injury-riddled Huskies’ offensive woes persist.
A rough first game of the week for Northeastern. However, the Huskies are back in action Sunday at Hofstra before heading to Stony Brook a week later on Feb. 25. WRBB’s next coverage of Women’s Basketball will be Friday, March 1. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m.