West Hartford, CT ? The Hawks women's basketball team started its season in style with a 62-45 victory in the opening round of the Preseason WNIT. Hartford advances to play Purdue in the second round on Sunday at 5:00 p.m. in West Lafayette, IN.
The sophomore class was the difference in the Hawks opener with three of the four second year players in double figures including the Nestle Purina ONE America East Player of the Game Erica Beverly who finished with her first double double of the season, 12 points and 10 rebounds.
MaryLynne Schaefer finished the game with a 50 percent effort from three point range, despite being handicapped with experimental rules that extended the three-point line an additional nine inches. Schaefer finished the game four-of-eight with all of her made field goals from long range. Katie Kelley rounded out the sophomore class with double figures in the scoring column. She finished with 10 points on 5-of-8 for a 62.5 percent effort.
The Hawks struggled in cleaning up the glass but managed to out-rebound the Big Green 28-25. Hartford was behind at the halftime break 22-17, but the pulled down 21 boards in the second half. Beverly's 10 boards was a game high for both teams with Ikea Witt second on the team with six rebounds.
The Hawks jumped out to an early 5-0 lead in the first two minutes with a jumper ffrom Beverly and the first three of the game for Schaefer. The Hawks kept the pressure on, going on an 8-3 run, in which four different player scored to take a 15-7 lead at the 10:00 mark. The Hawks would not back down, scoring on consecutive possessions, including a trey for Schaefer to go up 20-11 with 7:03 before the break. Dartmouth struggled to find a steady offensive rhythm for the balance of the half, finding itself down 26-17 before Ashley Taylor hit a lay up at 3:11 to cut the lead to seven.
The Big Green opened up the second half with back-to-back buckets to cut the Hawks' lead to four only one minute in. The Hawks turned it up a notch to go on a 7-2 run, up 41-33 with 11:47 to play. Back-to-back three pointers for Schaefer and a lay up from Danielle Hood put the Hawks up 15 with just under six minutes to play. The Big Green lessened that lead to 11 before Hartford took control with a lay up from Witt iced the game with less than a minute to play.
