BOX SCORE
Queens, N.Y. – The Hartford women's basketball team dropped its second-straight game on Sunday, falling to St. John's on the road 70-45. The Hawks were led by a pair of juniors in double figures, Daphne Elliott with 12 and Ruthanne Doherty with 10. Hartford returns home for a Wednesday night meeting with Hofstra at 7:00 p.m. at the Chase Family Arena at the Reich Family Pavilion.
The Hawks shooting struggled throughout the game, finishing the match-up with a 33.3 percent performance from the field on 17-of-51. After opening the game hitting 3-of-4 from beyond 21 feet, the Hawks would close out the game missing their next 11 attempts, finishing the contest 3-of-15 (20 percent) from long range.
St. John's would grab the first six rebounds of the game and continue that domination throughout the contest, finishing with a 48-30 advantage on the glass. The Red Storm were particularly dominating on the offensive boards were they held a 22-9 advantage, including nine offensive rebounds alone from Amber Thompson, who led the Red Storm with 19 points and 13 rebounds. Sophomore Milana Gilbert led the Hawks rebounding efforts with eight rebounds, a career-high.
St. John's opened the game with the first six points, until freshman Amber Bepko broke up the opening streak with the first of three-straight three pointers for the Hawks in the opening minutes. After a jumper from Shenneika Smith with 17:36 to play, the Elliott rattled off back-to-back long range buckets providing the games first lead change, a 9-8 advantage for the Hawks with 16:27 remaining in the half.
Those two three pointers would the last buckets for the Hawks over a seven minute span, which allowed the Red Storm to go on a 13-0 run, taking a 21-9 advantage, the largest of the game. St. John's opened up that run hitting five of their first six shots, the final of which was a three pointer from Eugenia McPherson with 11:31 remaining.
With the Hawks trailing 23-11 with 9:43 remaining in the half, the Hawks scored eight of the next nine points in the game to pull within five at 24-19 with just over six minutes remaining in the half. Hartford would pull their deficit to five on three more occasions before the Red Storm scored five-straight to end the half, the final three of which came on a heave from Keylantra Langley as time expired, giving St. John's a 35-25 advantage at the break.
The intensity the Red Storm took into the locker room continued coming out of the intermission. Following a layup and free throw from Doherty to open the half, St. John's scored six of the next eight points to retake a 12-point lead, 42-30 with 16:30 remaining in the game.
After the Red Storm opened up their lead to 14, the Hawks looked to have momentum, quickly pulling within 11 before the Red Storm would use a 10-0 run to take its first 20-plus lead at 58-37 with just under six minutes remaining. The closest the Hawks would get down the stretch was a 61-43 deficit heading into the final media timeout, but the Red Storm closed out the game with seven unanswered to score the 70-45 victory.
The Hawks return to West Hartford for two straight games in the coming week, the first against Hofstra on Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. The Hofstra game is scheduled to air live on CPTV Sports, one of six games on the Connecticut sports channel for Hartford.
