BOX SCORE
Boston, Mass. – The University of Hartford women's basketball team fell under .500 in league play with their third-straight loss, falling to the Boston University Terriers 58-50 at Case Gymnasium in Boston on Sunday afternoon. Hartford now stands at 6-14 overall and 3-4 in America East action, while the Terriers improve to 10-9 overall, the first time over .500 on the season, and remain unbeaten in conference play, 7-0 overall.
The loss marks the first time the Hawks have lost three-straight to conference opponents since the end of the 2003-04 season when they dropped the last three regular season league games and then fell to Albany in the opening round of the America East Championship. Hartford finished the 2003-04 season with an 18-12 overall record and a 9-9 mark in league play.
The Hawks struggled to find the hoop in the second half, finishing the final period shooting 28 percent (7-of-25) . The Hawks did shoot better than Boston University for the game, finishing the night shooting 37 percent (17-of-46) overall. The Terriers finished the game shooting 22-of-62 for 35.5 percent overall. The Terriers finished with a commanding lead in the rebounding category with a 43-32 margin, including outrebounding the Hawks 19-9 on the offensive glass. BU turned those 19 offensive boards into 16 points, to which the Hawks managed just three second chance points.
Sophomore Daphne Elliott and junior Ilicia Mathis led the Hawks with 13 points each, while Ruthanne Doherty finished with 10 points. Elliott was named the Hawks America East Player of the Game, after finishing the night 3-of-5 from the field and a perfect 7-of-7 at the free throw line. She also added five rebounds, while Doherty led the team in rebounding with seven boards.
For the third-straight game, the Hawks came out of the gates hot and pulled ahead to early leads before eventually relinquishing those advantages. Hartford scored the first six points of the game against the Terriers, who missed their first two shots and had a turnover on their third possession of the game. Meanwhile, Taylor Clark, Doherty and Elliott all capitalized on three of the Hawks first four possessions to give Hartford the early lead.
The Hawks wouldn't lose that lead at any point in the first half, extending it to its largest of 10, the only double digit lead by either team in the game. Hartford's biggest lead came courtesy of six-straight points, with Elliott sinking a pair of free throws with 5:53 remaining to give Hartford a 21-11 lead.
The teams would trade points for the remainder of the half, with the Terriers pulling within seven going into the break. A Chantell Alford three pointer with 34 seconds remaining pulled the home team within five points, before Mathis ended the half with a layup to end the half. Elliott led the Hawks at the break with six points, four of which came at the free throw line, while the Hawks defense held the Terriers leading scorer, Alford, to just three points on 1-of-8 overall.
Coming out of the halftime break, Boston University held the Hawks to just one bucket in the first 10-plus minutes while they outscored Hartford 16-5 over that span to take their first lead of the game. The lead change came on a three pointer from Alex Young, which was the second basket within a 7-0 Terriers run. Three of the Hawks five points in the first 10 minutes of the half came at the free throw line.
Elliott single handedly ended the Terriers run and halted their lead at four when she scored back-to-back buckets, one of which offered an old fashioned three point opportunity and gave the Hawks the lead back 37-36 with 8:45 remaining.
BU wasn't going to rest, taking that lead right back and extending it to six points when they put together another 7-0 run to pull ahead 43-37 with 6:41 remaining. Second half points, which plagued the Hawks all night, amounted to the Terriers six point lead as Kristen Sims put back her own miss to end the run.
After again trading points for the next four minutes, the Terriers opened up their largest lead on a three pointer from Alford with 2:20 remaining. Hartford answered right back with a three pointer from Mathis before the Terriers scored their final bucket of the game with 1:34 remaining, a layup from Alex Young.
Mathis would again connect from long range when they hit her second-straight three pointer with :50 seconds left, however after limiting the Terriers to just one point on their next possession, the Hawks would get a costly turnover on an inbounds play, which amounted to two more points for the Terriers. The Hawks ended up scoreless following Mathis' three as Boston University scored four free throws in the final minute to secure their seventh league victory of the season.
The Hawks will return to action on Wednesday when they play the final game in their first trip through the conference scheduled hosting Stony Brook at the Chase Family Arena. Hartford and Stony Brook are set to tip-off at 7:00 p.m., live on CTSN, the Connecticut Sports Network.
