BURLINGTON, Vt. - Milton Burton scored a game-high 17 points, but the Hartford men's basketball team had little else to smile about on the offensive end as they fell at Vermont, 72-51. The loss drops the Hawks to 4-3 in the America East as they dropped their tenth straight to the Catamounts.

Burton, along with Vermont's Evan Fjeld, was named the America East Player of the Game. He got the scoring started for the Hawks early, when his 10-foot jumper gave them a 2-0 lead less than 30 seconds into the game. Three minutes later, his three-pointer pushed the Hawks back in front, 7-6. It would prove to be the Hawks' final lead of the night.

A 9-0 run punctuated by a Luke Apfeld two-handed slam put the Catamounts up 15-7. With the crowd of 2,711 at Patrick Gym behind them, the Cats forced 10 turnovers by Hartford, helping them build a double-digit lead despite shooting just 38.7 percent from the field, compared to 40.0 percent for the Hawks.

With the half winding down and the Hawks trailing 30-19, Ryan Baker nailed a three from the left corner to cut the lead to eight with 1:08 to play. After a stop and a defensive rebound, Joe Zeglinski hit a jumper to make it 30-24, and Burton beat the buzzer by driving the length of the court and kissing a lay-up off the glass. The Hawks were down just four at the break, and seemed to have all the momentum.

That changed after intermission, as the Hawks seemed unable to get their offense going. With the Hawks down six and 13:25 remaining on the clock, Vermont started a 12-0 run which iced the game away. Again it was Burton who finally provided the offensive spark, nailing a three with 8:33 to play to end the run. It was Burton's only bucket of the second half.

Morgan Sabia scored 12 points for Hartford and pulled down nine boards, just one shy of a double-double. Sabia led the Hawks in boards, as they were outrebounded by Vermont 46-28. Hartford managed just seven offensive rebounds, compared to 15 for the Catamounts.

Freshman Joe Nardi hit two of Hartford's nine three-pointers, his first collegiate treys as he finished with a career-high six points.

Hartford will return to action on Saturday afternoon when they visit Stony Brook, their last game in the first tour of the America East. The Hawks will have played five of their first eight league games on the road. The Hawks and Seawolves tip it off at 3:00 p.m. on Long Island. Jeff Dooley and Randy LaVigne will have all the action on the flagship station of Hartford men's basketball, WDRC-1360 AM.