BOSTON, Mass. – The William & Mary men's basketball team dropped its Colonial Athletic Association opener at Northeastern, 84-64, on Saturday afternoon. The Huskies (8-5, 1-0 CAA) shot 62.5 percent from the floor in the opening 20 minutes and used a 23-2 first-half run to open up as much as a 31-point advantage. W&M (6-6, 0-1) battled back to cut the deficit to 12 with six and a half minutes remaining, but could not get any closer.
 
Senior Daniel Dixon led W&M for the second-straight game with 19 points on 7-of-17 shooting. Junior Jack Whitman finished with 15 points on 6-of-7 from the floor to go along with a team-high five rebounds. Senior Omar Prewitt scored nine points to go along with five rebounds and three assists, while sophomore Paul Rowley added eight points off the bench on 2-of-5 from 3-point range.
 
The Huskies scored the opening four points of the game, before W&M drew within one, 8-7, on a pair of Rowley free throws just over four minutes into the contest. Dixon carried over his strong play from the Old Dominion game, scoring five of W&M's first seven points.
 
Alex Murphy connected on back-to-back 3-pointers to spark a 15-4 NU run to increase the advantage to double-digits. Murphy (6) and Devon Begley (4) combined for 10 of the Huskies 15 points during the run, and a T.J. Williams free throw at the 11:24 mark extended the margin to 23-11.
 
Whitman scored on back-to-back dunks to keep the deficit at 10, 25-15, with 8:47 left, but NU responded with a massive run in taking its largest lead of the game. Over a six-minute stretch, the Huskies put together a 23-2 run to push the lead to 31. Williams paced the Huskies nine points during the stretch, before a Shawn Occeus free throw extended the NU lead as large as 48-17 with 2:26 remaining in the half.
 
The Tribe closed the deficit to 50-26 at the break, ending the frame on a 9-2 run. Whitman scored four points, and Rowley knocked down a buzzer-beating corner 3-pointer.
 
In the second half, W&M used a 15-5 spurt to draw within 15. Whitman scored four during the run, while Prewitt chipped in his first four points of the contest and found Rowley for a 3-pointer to force a NU timeout with 13:56 left in the contest. A steal and fast-break dunk from Prewitt off a nice pass from Rowley cut the deficit to 58-43 at the 12:38 mark.
 
After Northeastern pushed the lead back to 21 with six straight points, W&M scored nine in a row to draw to its closest. Whitman converted an old-fashion three-point play with 7:55 remaining, before a Dixon driving lay-up at the 6:30 mark cut the deficit to 64-52.
 
Begley and Murphy put the game out of reach for the Huskies, combing for four-straight 3-pointers. The duo provided a spark for NU throughout the contest. Murphy notched a game-high 24 points on 9-of-13 shooting, including 5-of-6 from 3-point range, while Begley tallied a career-high 21 points on 8-of-12 from the field and 4-of-6 beyond the 3-point arc. He also added seven rebounds and five assists.
 
Northeastern finished the game shooting 57.1 percent (32-of-56) from the field and 50 percent (9-of-18) from 3-point range. Williams scored 16 points to go with six rebounds and six assists, while Anthony Green turned in a career night with 13 points and nine rebounds.
 
The Tribe shot 40 percent (24-of-60) on the evening, but were just 4-of-24 (16.7 percent) from 3-point range. The Green and Gold knocked down 12-of-15 (80 percent) at the free throw line.
 
W&M wraps up its four-game road trip at Hofstra on Monday afternoon at 4 p.m. The live stream of the event will be available on CAA.TV. Tribe fans can also catch the action over the Tribe Radio Network with Jay Colley on the call. The Tide 92.3 FM and 107.9 Bach FM are the flagship stations of the Tribe Radio Network and the audio is also available over the Web at TribeAthletics.com.