BOX SCORE
BRONX, N.Y. – Joe Zeglinski and Milton Burton each put up season-best point totals, but the Hartford men's basketball team came up short in its attempt to get its first road victory of the season on Saturday afternoon, falling at Fordham, 61-57. The Hawks held a double-digit second half lead, but were kept without a field goal for the last 6:47 of the game.
Zeglinski led all scorers with 21 points, adding four steals. Burton had 15 points, all in the first half. Morgan Sabia, the Hawks' leading scorer in each of their first four games, added 13 points and a team-best seven rebounds.
The Hawks led for much of the way. With the score tied at 10 early in the first half, Hartford went to work, rattling off 10 straight points to give them a 20-10 lead. The Rams would not get back within a possession until just over 2:20 remained in the game.
Fordham hit the next two buckets after Hartford's 10-0 run, both three-pointers, but the Hawks responded with a 7-0 run to push the lead back up to 27-16. Their lead would be as much as 12 after Milton Burton nailed a three-pointer just seconds later. Burton led all scorers at the break with 15 points, hitting 6-of-12 from the floor and 3-of-8 from downtown. Joe Zeglinski added eight first-half points, while Morgan Sabia buried seven.
Fordham appeared to be getting a little momentum back on their side as the half drew to a close, putting in five straight to pull the score to 30-23 with just under 35 seconds to play. Hartford held for the last shot, and appeared to have a broken play when Sabia could not handle the pass and hurried a scoop shot up with the clock running down. Any Fordham momentum went out the door, though, when Burton swooped in to clean up the miss, tapping it in as the buzzer sounded. Hartford's halftime lead was 32-23, their largest intermission advantage of the young season.
Things continued like that for much of the second half. The Hawks led by nine with 4:40 to play, holding a 55-46 advantage before the Rams and the crowd of 1,375 piled in to see the 900th game at venerable Rose Hill Gymnasium came to life. Fordham went on a 9-1 run before Zeglinski nailed the first free throw of a one-and-one to push the Hawks' lead back to 57-55. He did not get a chance at the second, however, as the Hawks were called for a violation prior to his shot, giving the Rams the ball.
Hartford would not score again as Fordham charged down for the game's final six points. Down by two with the ball and 10.8 seconds to play, the Hawks inbounded it to Clayton Brothers, who drove the length of the court before solid Fordham defense knocked the ball out of his hands and off his leg out of bounds. The Rams sunk both of their free throws to ice the game away.
The Hawks are at it again on Tuesday night when they visit Yale, the third Connecticut 6 opponent Hartford has faced this season. Hartford and the Bulldogs will tip off in New Haven at 7:00 p.m. All the action will be on the flagship station of Hartford basketball, WDRC-1360 AM. Jeff Dooley and Randy LaVigne will have the call.
