BOSTON — In catch-up mode practically from the beginning, William & Mary was unable to overcome Northeastern’s fast start in a 69-57 loss Saturday in Boston.
The Tribe trailed 16-2 less than six minutes in and by 45-25 at halftime. W&M outscored the Huskies in the second half but not by enough to shake the deficit.
“They certainly got out of the gate quickly on us,” Tribe coach Dane Fischer said. “Some of that was that they made some shots early and some of it was that we struggled offensively getting into a flow and rhythm.
“We turned the ball over way too much in the first half and allowed them to get some easy ones. And that got them going.”
W&M (10-19, 5-10 CAA) had nine of its 14 turnovers in the first half. Equally troubling was that the Tribe finished with a season-low five assists on 20 baskets.
“The way Northeastern plays is, they want you to have a stat line that looked like ours with five assists for the game,” Fischer said. “We allowed them to dictate how we played offense.”
Ben Wight led W&M with 15 points on 5-of-9 shooting from the floor, 5-of-8 from the free throw line. Matteus Case and Anders Nelson each scored 10 points with Case adding six rebounds and two assists.
Tyler Rice added nine points on 3-of-7 shooting and four rebounds off the bench.
The Tribe played its fourth consecutive game without injured starters Noah Collier, its top rebounder, and Gabe Dorsey, who is ninth nationally in 3-point shooting percentage.
Jahmyl Telfort, who was held to five points in W&M’s 69-66 win in Kaplan last month, led Northeastern with 28 points.
“I thought he got a lot of easy ones on us,” Fischer said. “He scored in transition on us a bunch. He certainly made some tough plays, which he’s capable of doing, but there were way too many easy looks for him.”
It didn’t change the outcome, but the Tribe shot 52% from the floor and outscored Northeastern 32-24 in the second half.
“That was good to see, and it’s what this team has shown throughout the course of the year,” Fischer said. “Even when we’re not playing our best, the guys are going to continue to compete.”
The Tribe will return home for its final two games of the regular season against Elon Thursday night and Monmouth Saturday afternoon. The CAA tournament begins March 3 at the Entertainment and Sports Arena in Washington, D.C.
“We’ve got two big ones coming up at home for us,” Fischer said. “It’s a real good opportunity for us to finish out the regular season playing well and give ourselves a little momentum heading into the tournament.”
