BOSTON — Four of Northeastern’s opening-night starters did not play Thursday night against Elon. It was the only healthy one remaining who stole the show.
Junior guard William Kermoury made seven threes en route to a career-high 31 points as the Huskies took down the Phoenix at the Cabot Center, 85-78, and notched their first conference victory of the season on their home court.
Freshman guard Xavier Abreu added 22 points off the bench, tied for the second-highest scoring total of his young collegiate career, as a shorthanded home side battled to victory over an Elon team that had scored 103 points on them in the CAA opener last month.
Two key members of Northeastern’s frontcourt, senior Youri Fritz and freshman Ty Francis, were out Thursday after sustaining injuries in the prior week’s game against Towson, which led to freshman center Petar Pinter getting his first career start. The Huskies were not phased by the injuries early on in the game, as they jumped out to a 25-6 lead in the first eight minutes.
That start included 13 points from Kermoury and eight straight misses from the field by the visitors, who came into the night with the highest-scoring offense in the conference. However, the Huskies started to cool on the offensive end and the Phoenix began to heat up, allowing Elon to tie the game at 38 late in the half.
“We thought we could catch [Elon] a little bit by surprise with our energy,” said Northeastern head coach Bill Coen of the start to the game. “We weren’t moving quite as well a little later in the half, and [Elon] settled in and made some shots.”
Northeastern took a delicate two-point lead into halftime, and the start of the second half was back-and-forth. A 12-2 run by the Phoenix towards the middle of the frame, though, gave the visitors a seven-point lead, their largest of the game.
Fortunately for the Huskies, Abreu proceeded to take over the game, scoring Northeastern’s next 12 points, capped off by a slam dunk on the fast break that caused the home crowd to erupt.
“[Abreu] gets up and down in transition,” said Coen. “He gets out, fills lanes. Obviously, he’s not scared of the moment. … For a young kid, for a freshman to play at his level, it’s really impressive.”
On the next possession, Kermoury found himself in the left corner, spotted up for a three, and drained it to put the Huskies up four. They would maintain that multi-possession margin for the rest of the night. Kermoury is averaging 21 points per game in the first six contests of CAA play.
“[Kermoury’s] on an incredible heater,” said Coen. “Whatever he’s eating, I want him to keep eating it. Whatever Lucky Charms he’s carrying around, keep doing it. But he’s a terrific shooter, everybody knows that, and he’s on a roll. The basket looks really big for him right now.”
Without Fritz and Francis, in addition to the season-ending injury suffered by redshirt freshman forward Xander Alarie, the depth pieces in the frontcourt for Northeastern had to step up. In the second half Thursday night, Pinter played 12 minutes at the five, while fellow freshman center Liam Koelsch played the other eight. Pinter finished the night with eight points and nine rebounds, while Koelsch added three boards in the second half.
“I thought [Pinter and Koelsch] did a tremendous job in a very difficult position,” said Coen. “Last time we played that frontcourt, [Elon] scored a ton of points. And they did a really good job around the basket, getting physical, coming up with rebounds, and giving us the backbone to our defense.”
As for the status of Fritz and Francis, Coen said they’re taking it “day-to-day” with the injured forwards and that “we can’t wait to have them back in uniform.”
With the win, the Huskies improved to 2-4 in conference play and now have some momentum to build on.
“The season is a marathon, and you go through twists and turns,” said Coen. “But I think what we can take away from [this game] is that when we play with maximum effort and elite teamwork, sharing the basketball, believing in each other, and playing hard, we can compete.”
Northeastern travels to New Jersey to take on Monmouth in a Martin Luther King Jr. Day matinee at 11 a.m. on Monday. Stay tuned to WRBB for continued coverage of the 2025-26 men’s basketball season.
Jordan Walsh is a fifth-year student at Northeastern who has been with WRBB Sports since 2021, primarily covering men’s and women’s basketball. You can read all of his articles for WRBB here and find him on Twitter/X here.