West Hartford, CT – With her fifth double double of the season, senior forward Erica Beverly combined with classmate Diana Delva to lead the Hawks to a comfortable victory over the Albany Great Danes 59-36. The Hawks improve to 16-3 overall and 7-0 in the America East.

Delva was one of two players to lead all scorers in the game with 16 points, tied for the game-high with the Great Danes Ebone Henry. Delva missed her first two shots of the game, but rebounded to score on her next seven attempts, finishing the game 7-of-9 from the field. She also grabbed nine rebounds, one shy of her sixth double double.

Beverly completed the double double with 10 points and 11 rebounds. She finished the game 3-of-6 from the field and 4-of-6 at the line, while adding three assists, two blocks and a steal to her credit. Rounding out the leading scorers for the Hawks were Jackie Smith and Daphne Elliott who each finished with eight points, including a pair of three pointers for both. Smith finished the game with a game-high five assists.

As a team, the Hawks shot 41.5 percent (22-of-53) for the game, including a 48.3 percent (14-of-29) effort in the first half. Defensively, Hartford held the Great Danes to just 12 baskets in the game, seven in the first half and five in the second half. Albany finished the game shooting 21.8 percent (12-of-55). Hartford forced the Great Danes into 21 turnovers, while not allowing the offense to settle as Albany finished with just two assists.

Hartford opened the game scoring the first 11 points, which makes it the second game in a row that Hartford has stormed out to an early lead (12-0 at Boston University). Elliott closed out the Hawks game-opening run with a three pointer.

Despite Albany scoring eight of the next nine points, the Hawks quickly extended its lead back to double digits with a 6-0 run, with all the points scored in the paint on two layups from Delva and one from Ruthanne Doherty.

After trading baskets for the next three minutes, the Hawks extended their lead to 16, the largest in the first half, on back-to-back lay ups from Delva with 3:42 to play before the break. Those wouldn't be the final points of the half for the Hawks who used a Smith three pointer at the buzzer to take a 35-18 lead into the locker room at the half.

Coming out of the break Hartford's defense again clamped down, using a 15-0 run to take its largest lead of the game 52-21. The Hawks defense held the Great Danes to just three points in the first 10:30 of the half before an Adrienne Jones layup broke the run with 9:23 remaining in the game.

Following that Hartford run the Great Danes used their own run to cut into the Hawks lead. The Great Danes rattled off 12-straight points, holding Hartford without a point for a four minute span and without a bucket for more than seven minutes. In the end, it wouldn't matter as Hartford finished the game with the final six points, scoring the 59-36 victory to extend their current win streak to nine-straight games.

Hartford will put that win streak on the line when it heads to Burlington, VT on Tuesday for a match-up against the preseason favorite Vermont Catamounts. The Hawks and Catamounts will battle live on NESN at 7:00 p.m.