BOSTON — In the dwindling weeks of CAA regular season play, Northeastern finally got their elusive first conference win, topping the Hofstra Pride 61-51. Gatorade showers rained down at the sounding of the final bell as the Cabot Center crowd at long last had something to celebrate.
The offense, led by redshirt sophomore guard Abby Jegede’s 20 points and four three-point field goals drained by senior guard Camille Clement, found what it took to elevate above a scuffling Hofstra team. Winless in their last six before entering Sunday afternoon’s contest, graduate student forward Ramatoulaye Keita and the Pride found themselves in the midst of a tough schedule and injuries.
5-foot-7 junior guard Chloe Sterling was the team’s starting option for much of the season, but a knee injury suffered in the second quarter of last Friday’s loss at Stony Brook has had her sidelined. Missing their leader in scoring (13.0 ppg), minutes (33.3 mpg), and steals (1.3 spg), Hofstra turned to sophomore guard Micaela Carter at the point. Carter, however, went just 1-5 from the field in her 17 minutes on the hardwood Sunday.
The Huskies drew seven offensive fouls on the Pride, including a critical charge taken by Clement towards the end of the fourth quarter, seemingly sealing the deal on the W. Clement found herself down low in the paint putting pressure on the Hofstra bigs throughout the game.
“That’s what she does,” said Northeastern head coach Priscilla Edwards-Lloyd of Clement’s defense. “She’s always going to guard teams’ forward or secondary post player, so she’s just really learned to sacrifice her body and know the scout, and be in the right position.”
Northeastern trailed 28-33 heading into the second half but had momentum after a personal foul committed by junior guard Sabrina Larsson with 36 seconds left sent redshirt junior guard Natalie Larrañaga to the line, where she would drain one of two.
The third quarter saw just 23 combined points, with Hofstra manufacturing a lowly four points from field goals. The CAA leader in three-pointers per game, Hofstra’s junior guard Emma Von Essen, shot 0-4 from the field and 0-1 from beyond the arc in the frame. On the game, Northeastern’s perimeter defense held Von Essen to a 1-10 (.100) field goal percentage and 0-3 from three.
Nonetheless, the Huskies outscored the Pride 15 to eight in the quarter and had six different players make a field goal.
Northeastern blitzed after the intermission, taking advantage of eight Hofstra turnovers to go on a 13-2 run to begin the fourth, capitalized by a pair of Jegede free throws that increased the margin to 13. In response, Hofstra went on a run of their own, outscoring the Huskies 8-1 over the next three minutes of play. But that would be it for the Pride, as a missed jumper from Larsson was the final blow.
Hofstra finished the game 20-53 (.377) from the field and 3-12 (.250) from three. Northeastern tabulated a very similar percentage, shooting 20-52 (.385) and 6-23 (.261), respectively.
Although Northeastern got their first conference win of the season, there is still work to be done.
“This year obviously hasn’t been easy, but there’s still a lot to play for,” Edwards-Lloyd said. “Today was just an example of the process that we’ve been on, of continuing to improve and continuing to execute. If we get into another close game, we’d like to fix some things, to hopefully get one like we got one today.”
After the game, there was no shortage of celebration for this victory.
“We already just went crazy in the locker room, because obviously taking a lot of losses hurts, but we never backed down,” Jegede said. “We always knew we’d get one, and from there we can get some momentum, so we were celebrating. I’m going to celebrate with my family and our teammates and then get ready for the next game.”
Through this continual rough patch of a season, the Huskies faced adversity like no other team in the CAA.
“You can never give up, no matter how the season’s going, no matter how you play, you’ve just got to keep pushing,” Jegede said. “A lot of it takes loving the game. If you don’t love it, it’s going to be hard to push through the tough times.”
The Huskies host Towson at the Cabot Center for their “Think Pink Game” on Friday night. Jordan Walsh and Samuel Glassman will have the call at 7 p.m. on WRBB Sports+.