Pusica, Northeastern hold off hard-charging Elon

Vasa Pusica had four 3-pointers and 20 points and Northeastern built a 25-point lead in the first half and then held on to beat Elon, 7260, last night at Matthews Arena.

Elon rallied with a 9-0 run to get within 64-60 on Steven Santa Ana’s steal and layup with 46 seconds left, but the Huskies (9-6, 2-1 Colonial Athletic Association) made their final six free throws and Shawn Occeus punctuated the win with a breakaway two-handed dunk

The Phoenix (10-6, 2-1) cut the deficit to 49-45 near the midpoint of the second half, but NU surged back to 64-51 lead on Pusica’s 3-pointer with 3:55 left. Devon Begley added 12 points and Maxime Boursiquot scored 10 for the Huskies.

Loyola (Md) 68, Boston University 65 — In Baltimore, Andre Walker made four 3-pointers and tied his season high with 27 points to help the Greyhounds (410, 2-1) beat the Terriers (68, 2-1) in a Patriot League clash.

BU rallied to within 6665 with 16 seconds to go on Javante McCoy’s 3-pointer. Loyola turned it over four seconds later but forced an off-balance shot and got the rebound. Max Mahoney had 22 points and eight rebounds for BU.

Lehigh 83, Holy Cross 77 — In Bethlehem, Pa., Lance Tejada made six 3-pointers and scored 25 points and the Mountain Hawks (7-7, 2-1 Patriot League) rallied from an early 16-point deficit to beat the Crusaders (2-11, 0-3), despite a careerhigh 22 points from Austin Butler.

Women’s basketball

Boston College 77, North Carolina 64 — Taylor Ortlepp nailed five 3-pointers, finishing with 23 points on 8-of-12 shooting, as the host Eagles (6-9, 1-1) earned their first ACC victory by taking down the Tar Heels (10-5, 0-2).

Northeastern 54, UNCWilmington 47 — Jess Genco had 16 of her team-best 21 points in the second half, and added five assists and six steals, as the Huskies (77, 2-1) overcame a five-point deficit heading into the fourth quarter to beat the Seahawks (7-7, 0-3) in a CAA game in Wilmington, N.C.

Boston University 75, Loyola 56 — Nia Irving had 21 points and seven rebounds to power the host Terriers (7-6, 2-1 Patriot) beat the Greyhounds (2-12, 0-3).

Men’s hockey

Michigan Tech 4, Boston College 3 — The Huskies (11-8-5) scored three goals in the first period, then held on to beat the No.13 Eagles (108-2) at the Ice Vegas Invitational in Las Vegas.

Casey Fitzgerald had a goal and assist, David Cotton had two assists and Ryan Edquist made 24 saves for BC.

Bentley 3, Northeastern 3 — Adam Gaudette and Dylan Sikura scored, but the No. 9 Huskies (11-5-3) blew two one-goal leads as the Falcons (7-7-4) rallied for a surprising draw at Ryan Arena in Watertown.

Kyle Schmidt scored and set up Jonathan Desbiens for the game’s last goal, and Aidan Pelino made 33 saves for Bentley. Biagio Lerario scored his first and Cayden Primeau had 22 stops for NU.

UMass-Lowell 6, Vermont 0 — Ryan Dmowski had three assists to lead a six-scorer attack, and Christoffer Hernberg stopped 21 shots as the River Hawks (11-9-0, 7-6-0) beat the Catamounts (4-13-3, 1-7-2) in a Hockey East game at Tsongas Center.

Merrimack 3, UConn 2 — Sami Tavernier scored 13 seconds into overtime to lift the Warriors (6-10-4, 3-6-2) to a Hockey East win over the Huskies (8-14-2, 5-9-1) in Hartford.

Yale 5, UMass 3 — Oliver Chau had a goal and an assist and Matt Murray made 33 saves, but the Minutemen (9-8-0) fell to Joe Snively (two goals, assist) and the Bulldogs (7-8-0) in a nonleague encounter in New Haven, Conn.

Women’s hockey

Boston College 6, New Hampshire 0 — Daryl Watts had four goals (including a second period natural hat trick) and an assist, while her center Makenna Newkirk had a goal and four assists and Katie Burt made 33 stops for the shutout as the No.2 Eagles (17-1-3, 11-0-3 Hockey East) blanked the Wildcats (9-7-5, 6-4-3) at Kelley Rink.

Harvard 2, RPI 1 — Beth Larcom stopped 25 shots while Becca Gilmore scored the first and assisted Keely Moy’s game-winner as the Crimson (8-4-1, 6-2-1 ECAC) beat the Engineers (7-10-4, 4-4-1) in Troy, N.Y.