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WEST HARTFORD, Conn. - Joe Zeglinski had a season-high 25 points and Joel Barkers and Andres Torres added 11 each, but the Hartford men's basketball team fell to Sacred Heart on Friday night, 76-65. The loss, the seventh in a row for the Hawks, drops the team to 2-9.
Corey Hassan led the Pioneers (5-3) with 29 points, finishing a rebound shy of a double-double.
Hartford led for much of the first half, and after Sacred Heart's Ryan Litke nailed a three to give the Pioneers a 38-35 lead with under ten seconds to play, junior Andres Torres drove the length of the court and was fouled as his running lay-in dropped. He converted the three-point play to tie the score at intermisison.
In the second half, it was Zeglinski's hot shooting that kept the Hawks in the game. The junior nailed three long-range bombs in the second half to go along with four in the first stanza. His seven total three-pointers matched his season high, the best total for a Hawk all year. He finished 7-of-13 from beyond the arc.
Joel Barkers scored 11 points, just the second time he has been in double figures since opening the season with five straight 10-plus point outings. The junior college transfer battled hard against the 7'0" Liam Potter and 6'9" Mehmet Sahan down low, and solid screens from his teammates left him alone under the hoop on multiple occasions.
Barkers' lay-up with 6:01 remaining would prove to be the final points for the Hawks, though, as the iron turned unkind for the previously hot-hitting Hawks. To that point, Hartford was hitting over 50% from the field, and nearly 50% from beyond the arc. They finished .433 overall, .429 from downtown.
After Sacred Heart went ahead 69-65 with 5:39 remaining, neither team converted another field goal attempt. In fact, neither side could muster a point until Chauncey Hardy knocked down two free throws for the Pioneers with 1:18 to go.
One of the 14 fastest teams in the nation to play 10 games or more, the Hawks will now enjoy an 18-day layoff until their next game, when they travel to historic Rupp Arena on December 29 to take on the Kentucky Wildcats. Kentucky is currently ranked fourth in the nation, and the Hawks' visit to Lexington will air on ESPN2. It will be just the second game in Hartford basketball history to be seen on the ESPN family of networks. Tip time is set for 8 p.m. Fans will also be able to hear the action on the flagship station of Hartford basketball, WDRC-1360.
