West Hartford, CT ? The Hartford women's basketball team used the momentum of a 20-point game for Danielle Hood and a career-high 17 points from Lisa Etienne to defeat the Binghamton Bearcats 71-64 on Wednesday night. Hartford improves to 12-7 overall and 5-1 in America East action, while the Bearcats drop to 6-13 overall and 2-4 in conference play.
Etienne also added a game-high seven rebounds and four assists while shooting 6-of-9 from the field. She was named the Nestle Purina ONE Player of the Game for her performance. Hood finished the game shooting 9-of-15, while the team shot a season-best 53.1 percent from the field. Hartford's victory was the first time this season that the hawks have come back from a halftime deficit to win (previously 0-4).
Also scoring in double figures for the Hawks was Ikea Witt, who finished with 10 points. She shot 5-of-7 for the game. Diana Delva also faired well for the Hawks, finishing with nine points on a perfect 2-of-2 from the field and 5-of-5 from the free throw line. Rebecka Lindgren led the Bearcats and was named the America East Player of the Game for Binghamton. She finished with 20 points on a perfect 7-of-7 effort from the floor, including four three pointers.
Hartford finished the game with its best shooting percentage of the season 53.1 (26-of-49). The Hawks finished the first half just shy of 45 percent on 12-of-27, but came out with a vengeance in the second half shooting 63.6 percent, a season best. This is the third game this season, two in conference play, the Hawks have shot better than 60-percent in the second half, a feat that happened just twice all of last season.
Hartford trailed at one point by as much as nine points, in the first half, but battled to take just a one-point deficit into the locker room at the break. The Bearcats got a luck bounce off the top of the score board to score the final basket of the first stanza with one second on the game clock. The Hawks had taken a one-point advantage with 22 second to play before the break on a pair of made free throw from Delva.
The Bearcats early 16-7 lead came following a 10-2 run. But Hartford battled with a few mini-runs (5-0, 5-0, 6-0) to pull within one for the final minute of the first half. Hood led both teams in the first half with 12 points on 6-of-11 shooting.
The Hawks began to pull away mid-way through the second half after trading baskets with the Bearcats for the first eight minutes. During that time neither team held a lead bigger than three points with the score time three different times. Hartford first pulled away with a 7-0 run to take its first double digit lead at 11 points on a pair of made free throws from Katie Kelley.
The Hawks largest lead of the game came with 1:53 to play, 66-54. That lead was made possible on back-to-back-to-back layups from Etienne. The Bearcats battled as close as seven with 10 second to play but conceded the game in the final seconds. Hartford returns to action when they travel to Maine on Saturday for a 12:00 p.m. game.
