AMHERST - In a game with more whistles than field hockey, the University of Massachusetts men's basketball team never got its fast break in rhythm in the second half, but the Minutemen got enough done in the half court to pull away from Northeastern 83-67 Monday at the Mullins Center.

UMass was whistled for 21 fouls in the second half and Northeastern made 22-of-32 free throws after intermission, a number that could have been larger if not for missed one-and-ones.

The Minutemen stretched their 12-point intermission lead to 17 early in the second half at 55-38, but Northeastern went on a 13-2 run to cut UMass' edge to six with 10 minutes, 28 seconds left.

"I was a little concerned because the game didn't have any flow," UMass coach Derek Kellogg said.

But after two free throws by Terrell Vinson, Chaz Williams stripped Joel Smith and took off down the floor. Williams hit Freddie Riley with a no-look pass for an easy layup igniting the crowd of 2,664. A Sean Carter block started another break and this time Williams finished himself. With a defender closing in on him, Williams deftly switched hands in the air for the layup that pushed the UMass lead to 63-51 with 8:17 left and seemed to deflate the Huskies' comeback.

"We knew when they cut it to six we just had to step our stuff up," Williams said.

Jesse Morgan's 3-pointer extended the lead to 20 with just over two minutes left before the Minutemen called off the dogs.

"They had us on the ropes for a little while," Sampson Carter said. "We had a couple big buckets to turn it around."

Williams picked up where he left off Friday night with 20 points, 10 assists, a steal and a block.

"He's got a good feel for when to pick his spots, when to score, when to create for others," Kellogg said. "When we get in transition and the ball is in his hands, I feel very confident that something good is going to happen."

Vinson added 14 points and Carter had 12 for the Minutemen, who host New Jersey Tech, Thursday at 7 p.m. Jonathan Lee and Joe Smith each had 15 points for Northeastern (1-1).

"I was nervous because I thought Northeastern was a really good team the way that they played at BU the other night," Kellogg said. "I thought our guys responded well. ... We got sloppy when we got up in the second half. A really good college team closes the game out and puts them away a little earlier."

The Minutemen won comfortably despite minimal offensive contributions from three players they were expecting to score coming into the season. Raphiael Putney missed the game with an elbow injury and a concussion, but is expected back Thursday. Against NU, Riley struggled to shoot the ball (3-for-10, 1-for-7 from 3-point), as did Morgan (2-for-5, 1-for-3).

"Jesse and Fred have been tearing it up in practice," Williams said. "Both of them can score with the best of them. Once they start kicking in we can be much better."

Kellogg agreed.

"If we could get them up to 40-45 percent (from 3-point range), that would give us another shot in the arm," Kellogg said.

Matt Vautour can be reached at mvautour@gazettenet.com. Follow UMass coverage on Twitter at twitter.com/GazetteUMass. Get UMass coverage delivered in your Facebook news feed at http://www.facebook.com/GazetteUMassCoverage.