Game Notes
WEST HARTFORD, Conn. - The Hartford men's basketball team is playing some of its best ball of the season, and will get a chance to display that to a national television audience on Thursday night as they host the Retrievers of UMBC at Chase Family Arena at the Reich Family Pavilion at 7 p.m. The game will air locally on CTSN and in the Baltimore-Washington area on MASN. Additionally, the game will be available at ESPN360.com for viewers outside of the local broadcasting area.
Hartford has won five of its last eight games, and evened its conference record at 5-5 last Saturday when they grabbed a road victory at New Hampshire, 57-54. Junior Joe Zeglinski knocked down the game-winning three-pointer at the buzzer, a long bomb that was featured as the second-best play of the day on that evening's ESPN SportsCenter Top 10 Plays. It also was included as SportsCenter's fourth-best play of the weekend, a weekend which included Super Bowl XLIV, a record-breaking performance by LeBron James, and a dramatic 14th consecutive victory for the Washington Capitals.
Another highlight of the game was the return of junior point guard Andres Torres. After tearing his right posterior cruciate ligament against #3/3 Kentucky on December 29, Torres missed ten games while rehabbing the injury. He returned to the floor on Saturday, playing 23 minutes and scoring eight points while dishing out three assists.
The Hawks' victory was their third on the road in conference play already this season, a far cry from last year's 0-8 performance. The Hawks have three more opportunities - at Boston University, Maine and Binghamton - to improve even further on that mark.
Meanwhile, Hartford will prepare to take care of business at home tonight against a UMBC squad which sits last in the America East, 1-10 in the conference. The Retrievers earned their first league victory last week when they knocked off then-first-place Maine, 56-55, in Orono. Since then, they have dropped home contests to Vermont and Maine, playing amidst an historic blizzard in Baltimore. The snowstorms forced UMBC to travel to Hartford a day early, arriving in Connecticut on Tuesday night in preparation for tonight's game.
UMBC is led by Chauncey Gilliam's 12.7 points per game. Chris de la Rosa is adding 10.4 points a contest while adding 5.2 assists a game. Against the Hawks last month, the Retrievers were led by Adrian Satchell, who knocked down 16 points on 7-of-10 shooting.
Tickets for tonight's game are still available, and can be purchased at the Malcolm and Brenda Berman Athletics Box Office at the Reich Family Pavilion, or by calling 860-768-HAWK. Fans who can't make it to the arena or catch the game on TV can hear all the action on the flagship station of Hartford men's basketball, WDRC-1360.
