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WEST HARTFORD, CONN. – Behind a 50 point night from the bench, the Hartford women's basketball team scored its largest victory of the season with a 73-43 rout of the Maine Black Bears in the conference home opener at the Chase Family Arena. The Hawks (5-10 overall, 2-0 America East) were led by a pair of upperclassmen, Mary Silvia and Ilicia Mathis, who each finished with 13 points.
For the second game in a row the Hawks finished the game shooting 50 percent (25-of-50) from the field, this time behind a 67 percent shooting effort in the second half alone (16-of-24). Among the two leaders, Silvia led the pair with a 5-of-7 effort from the field, with three buckets from long range. Mathis saw nine of her 13 points come at the free throw line where she knocked down 9-of-12.
Joining Silvia, who was named the Nestle Purine One America East Player of the game for Hartford, with impressive shooting performances was fellow classmate Amanda Weaver (4-of-5) and sophomore Ruthanne Doherty (3-of-4). Weaver, playing in her first game back since suffering an injury following the first game of the season, joined Silvia and Mathis as the third of four players to record double figures with 11 points. Rounding out the leading scorers was Alex Hall who added 10 points.
Maine was led by Ashleigh Roberts, who was the Black Bears America East Player of the Game, who led all players in the game with 18 points. Roberts finished the game shooting 7-of-12 from the field and 4-of-6 at the line. As a team, Maine shot 25.5 percent (14-of-55) overall and struggled to find the hoop from beyond 19 feet making just one three pointer in six total attempts.
Despite Maine scoring the first bucket of the game, the Hawks led the rest of the way after scoring the next eight points to take an 8-2 advantage, whole holding Maine without a score for more than four minutes. Amber Smith, a redshirt-freshman, broke that drought with the first three pointer of the game and what would amount to be the only one for the Black Bears in the game.
Following that bucket from Smith, the Hawks again used 7-0 run to take their first double digit lead of the game. The lead came off a three pointer from senior Jackie Smith with 9:40 remaining.
The Black Bears would make it interesting with under four minutes remaining before the break, pulling within a bucket on a layup from Shareka Maner. That bucket capped off an 8-0 run for the Black Bears, which was ended by a pair of free throws from Mathis and a three pointer from Silvia.
Silvia would answer again draining one from downtown to pull ahead 23-17, the same margin the Hawks would take into the break following a pair of buckets with less than 30 seconds remaining. Tanna Ross ended the period with a jumper as time expired.
The Hawks came out of the locker room with fire in their eyes and ice in their vanes as they quickly extended their lead back to double digits and watched it grow from there. A layup from Nikkia Smith with 18:22 to play in the game extended the Hawks lead to 10, while a 7-0 run extended it to 15 points with 14:25 remaining. Five of those seven points came from Hall on a jumper and a three pointer off feeds from Mathis and Nikkia Smith.
The home squads largest lead of the game would come with less than a minute before the final horn as Alyssa Englert connected on her only shot attempt of the night to put the Hawks ahead by 32, 73-41. A pair of free throws from Amber Smith would provide the final margin of victory.
The Hawks will play a second-straight home conference game on Satuday when they welcome the Albany Great Danes to the home of the 2011 America East Men's and Women's Basketball Championship Presented by Newman's Own. The Great Danes enter with the best non-conference record in the league and a 1-0 mark in league play with an overtime victory over New Hampshire on Tuesday. The Hawks and Great Danes are set to tip-off at 3:00 p.m. The game is Father/Daughter Day at the Chase Family Arena with a free daughter's ticket with each dad ticket purchased.
