PHOTO GALLERY

WEST HARTFORD, Conn. – The Hartford women's basketball team used a 9-0 run with under five minutes remaining to take a double digit lead and never looked back defeating the Marist Red Foxes 64-53 on Tuesday night at the Chase Family Arena at the Reich Family Pavilion.

The Hawks used their best shooting half since the 2010-11 season, with a 63.6 percent second half effort (14-22), finishing the game shooting 51 percent on 26-of-51. The last time the Hawks shot 60-percent or better in the second half came against Maine on January 11, 2011 when they connected on 16-of-24 for 66.7 percent. Tonight's 51 percent effort overall is the best since February 18, 2010 when the Hawks shot 51.8 percent against the Binghamton Bearcats (29-of-56).

For the night, Hartford was led by senior's Ruthanne Doherty and Alex Hall who finished with 14 and 10 points respectively. Doherty's 14 points, 10 of which came in the second half, led all players in the game as she finished the night connecting on 6-of-13. Hall finished with just two missed shots in seven attempts.

The Hawks trailed in the battle of the boards (34-32) for the second-straight game. Leading the way was Doherty who finished with eight rebounds, while a pair of Hawks finished with seven, Katie Roth and Nikkia Smith. Both Roth and Smith along with point guard Alyssa Englert added eight points to the Hawks efforts. Englert also led Hartford with four assists.

Defensively, Hartford forced Marist into 20 turnovers, converting those miscues into 17 points. The Hawks finished with double figure steals as a team for the second-straight game, led by sophomore Amber Bepko who finished with four. As a team, the Hawks held Marist to 36.2 percent from the field (21-of-58) as Elizabeth Beynnon led the Red Foxes with 13 points.

The highlights of the night might very well have come in the form of three buzzer beating baskets for the Hawks. The first of those highlights ended the opening half as Englert went coast to coast for a layup as time expired and knotted the game at 28. Englert would again beat the buzzer, this time the shot clock, as she drained a wild jumper just inside the three point arc that gave the Hawks a 43-41 lead, one they wouldn't relinquish, with 10:57 remaining.

The final buzzer beater came from Smith who sunk a jump shot as the shot clock expired with 2:55 remaining in the game. Her basket was one of four in what turned out to be a 9-0 run that gave Hartford a 62-50 lead with 124 seconds left in regulation.

After trading the first four points of the contest evenly, Marist took a 4-2 lead on a pair of free throws from Casey Dulin before Hartford opened either squads biggest lead in the first 20 minutes, 8-4 using a 6-0 run. That run include a pair of layups from Hall as well as one from Roth.

The Hawks held that lead for the next five minutes before a 6-0 run from the Red Foxes provided the second lead change of the night, 15-12 with 10:18 remaining. Dulin closed off that run with a fast break layup off a steal.

The Hawks responded by melding together the next five points to take a 17-15 lead with 6:21 remaining. A fast break steal and layup from Daphne Elliott provided that next lead change, the third and fourth points in the run.

The teams would then trade three pointers from Madeline Blais and Bepko before a layup from Roth with 4:11 remaining in the half gave Hartford a 22-18 lead. Marist responded by tying the score at 22 with four-straight points. After a three pointer with seven seconds remaining before the break gave the visitors a 28-26 advantage, Englert took the in-bound pass and drove straight to the hoop laying the rock in as time expired to bind the score at 28 at the intermission.

The teams came out of the intermission and traded buckets for the first seven minutes, with neither team leading by more than three points in that stretch. After a pair of free throws gave Marist a 41-38 advantage with 12:59 remaining, the hawks used a three pointer from Shanise Bultron who had checked in just moments earlier to tie the score at 41 and then took the lead on Englert's second buzzer beater of the night.

Beynnon provided a jumper on the other end that knotted the score at 43 before Bultron struck again with a second three pointer, this one straight away that gave the Hawks a 46-43 advantage, one they would never look back from. A layup from Hall extended that lead to five before the teams traded the next five buckets evenly.

Following a layup from Emma O'Connor with 5:32 remaining in the game that brought her squad within three, 53-50, the Hawks rattled off nine straight for the first double-digit advantage of the night, 62-50. Included in that scamper was a pair of baskets for Doherty and the shot clock beating jump shot from Smith.

Marist would manage just one more basket in the game, a three pointer from Dulin with 1:18 remaining but that basket mixed with intense full court pressure didn't faze the Hawks who secured their second victory of the season 64-53 following a pair of free throws from Englert that ended the scoring.

Hartford returns to the hardwood on Friday night when they travel just 9.7 miles from campus to take on the Central Connecticut State University Blue Devils in the first road contest of the year. Both teams enter with 2-0 records as the Blue Devils defeated URI in their season opener on the road and topped Massachusetts tonight in the home opener 78-69. The Hawks and Blue Devils will tip off at 7:00 p.m. at Detrick Gymnasium on the New Britain campus.