It was a familiar story for the Huskies this past week. A tough and gritty Northeastern squad found itself trailing by double digits and rallied to make it a close game, but couldn’t emerge with a win.

The Huskies hosted Hofstra (16-6, 6-5 Colonial Athletic Association) Thursday night as junior guard Shaleyse Smallwood passed the 900-career point mark with a team-high 19 points. But it wasn’t enough, as the Pride took a seven-point lead at halftime and held on for a 72-63 win.

The game started out as a back- and-forth affair, but Hofstra built an 11-point lead with 4:36 left in the first half on a basket by sophomore forward Harmonie Calinda.

Sophomore guard Ashlee Feldman dropped one in from beyond the arc to cut the Pride’s lead to 37-30 heading into halftime. Feldman had 16 points, going from 4-8 beyond the arc and 4-5 at the free-throw line.

The first half saw both Husky forwards, junior Stefanie Hodell and freshman Kim Carr, run into foul trouble. This forced the team to play with five guards for stretches of time.

After halftime, the Huskies charged out of the locker room with renewed energy. Feldman drew a foul on a three-point attempt and sank two of three shots from the charity line, cutting the lead to four.

A pair of free-throws by Smallwood gave NU a 43-42 lead with 15:34 left. But the Huskies wouldn’t stay on top for long, as Hofstra regained the lead less than a minute later on a three-pointer by sophomore guard Niki Williams.

NU cut the gap to as little as one point, but Hofstra was able to shut down Northeastern on the field, holding them without a field goal attempt for the last 3:04 of the game.

“I feel like we deserve to win one of these games,” Feldman said.

All night long the Pride pounded a much smaller and overmatched Husky front court as they out-rebounded the Huskies 42-30 and doubled their points in the paint production (40-20). The Pride took advantage of 14 Husky turnovers for 23 points.

“We play a fast-paced offense,” said head coach Daynia La-Force Mann. “Turnovers will happen.” However, she stressed the need for the Huskies to control the game in the paint, as Hofstra was able to grab 21 offensive rebounds for 24 second-chance points.

Senior forward Lizanne Murphy lead all scorers with 20 points and pulled down 13 rebounds for the Pride.

Sunday the Huskies traveled to the Towson Center in Maryland to take on the Towson Tigers (15-6,6-5 CAA). Previously, the Tigers traveled to Huntington Avenue where NU emerged with a convincing 65-52 victory in one of their best overall efforts of the year.

But the Tigers wouldn’t have any of that on their home court, jumping out to a 34-21 lead at the half en route to a 68-63 win.

The lead was extended to 15 points at 17:05 in the second half. Feldman scored eight points in seven minutes to help key a 16-4 run, shaving the lead to three points with 10:41 left in the game.

“If [Feldman] is quiet, many teams forget how deadly she is,” La-Force Mann said.

Towson responded with a run of its own and soon had an 11- point lead as the Huskies couldn’t muster up any more last-minute magic.

Junior guard Lucia Pablos lead all scorers with 21 points while Smallwood had 19 and Feldman had 15. Hodell posted her second straight game with double-digit rebounds, pulling down 13 after posting 10 versus Hofstra.

Despite Hodell’s efforts, the Huskies were out-rebounded 37-27 as the Tigers had 30 points in the paint to NU’s 20.

Freshman guard Shanae Brice-Baker led Towson with 15 points, while fellow freshman Kandace Davis pulled down 11 rebounds from her forward position.

The Huskies were reckless with the ball, turning it over 25 times, resulting in 27 Towson points.

“We came up a bit short,” La-Force Mann said. “[Towson] didn’t change much [from the previous game]. We had too many turnovers, many of them unforced.”

NU (3-19, 2-9 CAA), will host Old Dominion, CAA champs 15 years in a row tomorrow at 7 p.m., at Solomon Court.