West Hartford, CT - The University of Hartford women's basketball team held on in the final minute, thanks to clutch free throw shooting, for a 64-62 victory over St. John's University on Friday night. The Hawks were led by senior Danielle Hood, the America East Nestle Purina ONE Player of the Game, who finished with 16 points and five rebounds. Hartford is now 7-2 overall, while St. John's falls to 6-2.
Tonight's victory is the second over a Big East school this season, the first came over Providence 77-60. Hood finished the game shooting 8-of-10 from the free throw line. She struggled in the first half, finishing 0-of-8 from the field, but rebounded to finish 4-of-5 in the second half (4-of-13 overall). Lisa Etienne finished the game with 12 points and 4-of-9 from the field to round out the Hawks leading scorers.
St. John's finished the game with a better shooting percentage (40 percent, 26-of-65) and won the battle of the boards, but Hartford took advantage at the free throw line, finishing 18-of-24 for 75 percent. The Hawks finished the game shooting 38 percent from the field (21-of-56), with a 43 percent effort in the second half (9-of-21).
Katie Kelley also shot well for the Hawks, finishing with eight points on 4-of-5 shooting, including 4-of-4 in the first half. Hartford finished with 36 total rebounds and was led by Diana Delva who finished with nine rebounds. Erica Beverly finished with six rebounds, while Hood added five.
St. John's was led by Monique McLean, who finished with a double double, 17 points and 11 rebounds. Joy McCorver and Kia Wright added 12 points for the Red Storm.
The Hawks used an early 6-0 run to take a 10-4 lead with 13:28 to play in the first half. The run included a three pointer from Etienne and three free throws from Hood. The Red Storm answered right back with six of their own. Following the St. John's run the teams tied the score two more times over the next two minutes before the Hawks opened a six-point lead with 6:40 to play.
St. John's took a one-point lead with one minute to play in the half on a jump shot from McLean. Hartford answered back with a jumper from Kelley and a layup from Beverly to take a three-point lead into the break.
The Red Storm came out of the break to score the first basket of the half, cutting the Hawks lead to one. Hartford answered with a three pointer from Etienne. The Hawks took a six-point lead with 15:50 to play on a layup from Hood and again with 14:38 to play on a jumper from Beverly.
Beverly hit another jumper with 13:30 to play to open a nine-point lead. St. John's then used a 6-0 run to pull within three with 10:22 to play. The run saw four points from Recee Mitchell on two free throws and a layup. Hartford re-extended its lead to six, scoring five of the next six points.
A pair of free throws from Courtney Gomez with 3:18 to play put the Hawks ahead 57-50, before St. John's scored nine of the next 11 points to tie the score at 59 with 1:03 to play. Hartford answered with a pair of free throws from Hood and held the Red Storm to just one free throw from Wright with 27 seconds to play.
Gomez hit two more free throws with 13 seconds to play, before the Hawks held St. John's to just a jumper with three seconds to play. MaryLynne Schaefer connected on one of two free throws to give Hartford a two-point advantage. The Hawks defense held St. John's without a shot in the final seconds to guarantee the victory.
Hartford will host Hofstra on Sunday to close out back-to-back home games. The Hawks and Pride are scheduled to tip off at 2:00 p.m. at Chase Arena.
