Lawrence, KS ? The University of Hartford women's basketball team dropped its season opener 76-72 despite a minute barrage of three pointers from MaryLynne Schaefer. The Hawks were led by Diana Delva who finished with 18 points and two blocks. Hartford is 0-1 on the season and will next play at Providence on Tuesday at 7:00 p.m.
Delva finished the game shooting 80-percent from the field (8-of-10). The Hawks finished the game shooting 41-percent on 25-of-61. Schaefer finished second on the team with 15 points, all on three pointers, while Danielle Hood rounded out the leading scorers with 13. Nicolette Smith of Kansas led all players with 19 points on 4-of-8 shooting and 7-of-7 from the free throw line.
Delva also led the Hawks in rebounding where she finished with seven boards. Hood finished second with six, while Schaefer and Erica Beverly each had five. The Hawks fell short in the team rebounding battle with 32 total, compared to 35 for Kansas. Hartford also finished with 21 assists, with Courtney Gomez leading that category with a career-best seven.
Hartford trailed by ten at the halftime break, led in the first 20 minutes by Delva. She finished with 10 points, one of two players in the game to cross the double digit plateau in the first half. Danielle McCray led the Jayhawks with 13 first half points. Hartford shot 39-percent (11-of-28) in the first half, while Kansas capitalized on their shots for a 52-percent (14-of-27) first half effort.
Hartford opened up to a 6-2 lead, extending that to 9-4 before the Jayhawks began to chip into the lead. The Hawks forced Kansas into six turnovers in the opening minutes of the game. Kansas took their first lead of the game at 12-11 on a three-pointer from Nicolette Smith. The lead would change hands twice more before Kansas took a lead it would hold for the remainder of the half.
The Kansas lead was made possible by a 15-2 run, which spanned 11 minutes. In that span, the Hawks managed 12 shots, hitting one and turned the ball over six times. Gomez came off the bench to hit a layup with 3:16 to go. Hartford would score six-straight before McCray hit a three. The Hawks would score four more before the break, to pull the Jayhawks advantage to 10 at the half.
Hartford used three runs, seven, three and four points respectively, to pull within two 55-53, before three free throws put the Kansas advantage back at five. Kansas extended their lead back to nine before a Delva layup put the score at 63-56. The Jayhawks ten scored six-straight to take a 13-point advantage with 3:14 to play.
Hartford didn't hit a basket for a four minute span in the final five minutes of the game, scoring only on free throws. The Hawks used back-to-back three pointers from Schaefer to pull within three, 72-69, with 17.5 ticks on the clock. Gomez provided a key steal and the assist in the back-to-back baskets.
Two free throws with 15 seconds to play from Smith put the Jayhawks up five before a Schaefer three, her fifth of the game put Hartford back within two, 74-72. Smith sank two more free throws and a last second attempt by Hartford fell short.
