Richmond, Va. - The William and Mary men's basketball team fell, 57-49, to Northeastern in the opening round of the Colonial Athletic Association Tournament on Friday night at the Richmond Coliseum. The College trailed by as many as 12 points in the second half, but cut the deficit to three with six and half minutes remaining before Northeastern used its advantage on the glass and at the free throw line to hold off the Tribe. W&M closed out the year at 6-26 overall, while Northeastern upped its mark to 14-16 and advantaged to the CAA Quarterfinals where it will meet No. 2 seed VCU on Saturday night.

Sophomore forward Tim Rusthoven led the Tribe with 12 points on 6-of-9 shooting to go along with seven rebounds. Freshman guard Marcus Thornton added 10 points off the bench to go along with two assists, while sophomore Julian Boatner added eight points, including a pair of 3-pointers.

Seniors Quinn McDowell, JohnMark Ludwick and Kendrix Brown closed out their careers for W&M against Northeastern. McDowell, who will go down in Tribe annals as one of the best to don the Green and Gold, finished with six points and a career-high tying five assists. He holds the W&M career records for games played (126) and minutes played (4091) and is one of just four players in program history with better than 1,600 career points and 500 career rebounds. The Lowes Senior CLASS Award finalist became the first player in CAA history to win the Dean Ehlers Leadership Award on two occasions after receiving the award on Thursday night. Brown, who is one of just 13 players in W&M history with over 200 career assists and 100 career steals, scored four points and equaled the team-high with seven rebounds on the night despite battling foul trouble.

After Northeastern scored the opening points of the game, junior guard Matt Rum found sophomore Brandon Britt for a 3-pointer from the right wing to give the Green and Gold an early 3-2 advantage just a minute into the contest. NU responded with seven straight points to retake the lead and pushed the first-half advantage to as many as 10 points. The Huskies led 22-12 after a Kashief Edwards putback at the 5:43 mark.

W&M bounced back and scored 10 of the half's final 13 points. Thornton drove the right side of the lane for a scoop lay-up and dropped a pass back to Rum for a 3-pointer from the left wing, closing the gap to 22-17 with 4:47 and forcing an NU timeout. The College narrowed the margin to 24-22 with less than two minutes remaining on a 3-pointer from the top of the key by Brown, but the Huskies took a three-point advantage, 25-22, to the locker room.

Northeastern increased its lead to open the second half, hitting each of its first four field goals, all from 3-point range. Back-to-back triples from Jonathan Lee and Joel Smith started the second 20-minute period. After a Rum 3-pointer narrowed the gap to six, Quincy Ford drilled a pair of triples including the second at the 16:40 mark to extend the NU advantage to its largest at 39-27.

An 8-2 Tribe run sliced the deficit to 41-35 with 9:41 remaining. Boatner drilled a 3-pointer from the right corner, before Thornton scored on a floater in the lane. Boatner knocked down his second triple of the second half to cut the Huskies' lead to six.

The NU advantage was seven, 46-39, with 7:02 remaining after a pair of Ford free throws. Thornton was a perfect 2-of-2 from the free throw line 12 seconds later to close the gap to five, before a fast-break lay-up by McDowell made it a three-point game, 46-43, with 6:27 remaining.

It would be as close as the Tribe would get though as NU answered with six straight points to put the game out of reach. Reggie Spencer, who finished with 10 rebounds for Northeastern, connected on a pair of free throws and then added a jumper in the lane along with a Alwayne Bigby jumper to push the margin to nine, 52-43, with 3:41 remaining.  

For the game, W&M was 39.6 percent (19-of-48) from the floor, but was just 6-of-22 from 3-point range and 5-of-10 from the free throw line. Defensively, W&M limited NU to just 34 percent (16-of-47) from the floor and 31.3 percent (5-of-16) from 3-point range, but the Huskies got to the free throw line 33 times and converted on 20 of those attempts. NU also held a 42-27 advantage on the glass.  Ford led NU with 18 points and seven rebounds, while Lee added 11 points and Smith finished with 10.