Boston, Mass. -- Tanesha Sutton led all scorers with 22 points on Saturday afternoon but it was not enough as the Northeastern Huskies (10-1) defeated the University of Maine women's basketball team, 63-55, at the Cabot Center. Saturday's outing, which featured a battle between top-15 ranked mid-major programs, saw 10 lead changes between the two evenly matched squads.

Sutton, who tallied her third career 20 point scoring performance, finished the day an impressive 10-of-13 from the floor while adding eight rebounds. Sutton now stands just 11 rebounds away from 500 for her career. Blanca Millan returned to the double-digit column with 11 points while Kelly Fogarty chipped in eight points off the bench.

Maine wrapped up the contest with a 21-for-51 showing from the floor and 9-of-16 from the free throw stripe.

The Huskies led for the majority of the opening period in a tight first quarter which never saw the deficit reach more than four on either side.

Northeastern, which carried a 15-13 lead after one quarter,  led by a pair early in the second before Fogarty stuck a triple to give the Black Bears an 18-17 edge. Moments later, after Northeastern answered with a three of its own, Fogarty again knocked down a triple to put Maine back on top, 21-20.

The Black Bears, trailing by one with 7:04 left in the half, were able to piece together a short 6-1 run which gave them their largest lead of the contest. A layup from Maeve Carroll started the sprint. After a Northeastern free throw, buckets from Kira Barra and Sutton expanded Maine's lead to 27-23 with 5:33 left in the second.

However, Northeastern would close the half on a 13-0 run to build a 36-27 lead at the half. A lead which would grow to double-digits, 38-28, just over a minute into the third period.

Maine would look to answer, stringing together an 8-2 run to cut the deficit to four on a layup by Sutton. Four would be as close as Maine would get it in the third quarter as Northeastern rebounded, expanding the lead back to nine before taking a 49-42 edge into the final quarter.

Two free throws by Millan trimmed the Northeastern advantage to five with 8:42 remaining. However, a 9-2 run by the Huskies gave them their largest advantage, 58-46, with 6:02 on the clock.

Saar's triple looked to ignite Maine as the sophomore's bucket brought the Black Bears to within seven. But that would be as close as they would get as Northeastern took the contest in the end, 63-55.

Following the Holiday break, Maine is back in action on Dec. 29 when it travels to take on Fordham at 1 p.m.

-UMaine-