LAS VEGAS ? The University of Hartford men's basketball team picked up its first win of the 2007 Findlay Toyota Las Vegas Invitational on Friday in the third round, 73-57, over Jackson State University at Orleans Arena.
Hartford (2-4 overall) will face South Carolina State (1-4 overall) on Saturday, November 24 at 5 p.m. ET. SCSU beat Iona earlier in the day by an 81-76 final.
“It was very important for us to come out and play well today, whether we won or lost,” said head coach Dan Leibovitz. “We needed to execute on both sides of the ball and get back to the things that are important in this program.”
Sophomore Joe Zeglinski led Hartford with a game-high 15 points and added six rebounds. Junior Warren McLendon chipped in with 14 points and five rebounds while classmate Michael Turner added 12 points.
The Hawks trailed only once in the game, as Jackson State (0-5 overall) scored off the opening tip to take a 2-0 lead. Freshman Anthony Minor tied the game on a dunk a minute later, but over the next eight minutes the Hawks struggled to build the lead. Hartford took its biggest advantage of the half on a three-pointer by Turner to make it 34-26 with 3:00 to play.
Hartford led 38-34 at the half after shooting 41 percent from the floor. Jackson State shot 52 percent in the stanza.
The Hawks took control midway through the second half with a 10-0 run to make it 55-43 with 7:24 remaining. Zeglinski scored back-to-back buckets to start the stretch and freshman Morgan Sabia followed with a three-pointer. Junior Jaret Von Rosenberg capped the run with a pair of free throws, his first points since coming back from a knee injury sustained in the first game of the season.
Hartford led by as many as 18 points in the second half and shot 44 percent for the game. The Hawks also outrebounded the Tigers by a 36-32 margin and turned the ball over a season-low 12 times.
The Las Vegas Invitational is an eight-team tournament that began with first and second round games at campus sites?Louisivlle, North Carolina, BYU and Old Dominion. The four traveling teams?Hartford, Jackson State, South Carolina State and Iona?were all moved into the same bracket once the venue shifted to Las Vegas.
“We came out here this weekend looking at it as a four-team tournament,” said Leibovitz. “Only one of these four teams will come out with two wins, and we want to be that team. We took the first step by winning today.”
