AMHERST, Mass. – The Hartford women's basketball team held off a late UMass rush to take home a 71-65 victory on Wednesday night at the Mullins Center. The win for the Hawks extends the season-opening streak to five-straight, the first time in the 37-year history of Hartford women's basketball the Hawks have opened a season 5-0.

Pacing the Hawks was rookie Katie Roth who finished with a career-high 17 points, her first game as a Hawk in double figures. Roth finished the night missing just one of her seven attempts, while going 5-of-8 at the free throw line. She also added four rebounds and two blocks. Joining Roth in double figures was Nikkia Smith who finished with 11 points and Alex Hall who added 10. Hall also led the Hawks with seven rebounds as they outrebounded the Minutewomen 36-35.

Also among the scoring leaders was Ruthanne Doherty and Alyssa Englert who each finished with nine. Sophomore Amber Bepko finished with eight points. All of Bepko's points came at the free throw line as she finished 8-of-9. Hall's eight points combined with seven rebounds and five assists for the even attack, while she was also perfect at the free throw line at 4-of-4.

Overall, the Hawks finished the night shooting 41.5 percent from the field on 22-of-53 overall. At the line, the Hawks took advantage of 26 fouls on the Minutewomen by connecting on 25-of-35 for 71.4 percent. Defensively, Hartford forced its fifth-straight opponent into 20 or more turnovers as UMass finished with 23. The Hawks turned those 23 miscues into 26 points. Hartford's bench provided the largest margin of the night outscoring the Minutewomen 25-8.

After allowing UMass to score the first four points of the contest, the Hawks rattled off the next six, the first two from Roth followed by back-to-back jumpers from Doherty. The Minutewomen mustered just one more lead in the game, that possible because of a stretch where they scored 8-of-11 points to take a 15-11 lead with 11:44 remaining in the first half.

The Hawks answered that by scoring nine-straight to take a 20-15 lead, one they would never give back. After that run, the Minutewomen cut that advantage to a single point on back-to-back layups from Jasmine Watson and Rashida Timbilla, but the Hawks extended their lead back to six with 6:35 remaining on five-straight, three from Roth and two from Daphne Elliott.

Ahead by three with 3:29 remaining before the intermission, the Hawks defense kicked in and held the Minutewomen scoreless down the stretch and that allowed for a 7-0 run to end the half with a 37-26 advantage, thanks in part to a fast break layup at the buzzer from Hall.

Coming out of the break, UMass cut into that lead with the first five points, but the Hawks would go on a 10-2 run to open up a 14 points, 47-33, lead with 15:40 remaining in the contest. The Minutewomen cut that lead into single digits by scoring three straight baskets. Hartford responded by scoring seven of the next nine points to re-take a double digit lead, 54-41, with 10:31 remaining. That lead came by way of three free throws from Bepko as she was fouled outside the arc.

The Minutewomen would go on to hold the Hawks to just one field goal over the final 5:30 of the contest, but Hartford capitalized at the line going 10-of-14 down the stretch. The lone bucket in that time came from Smith on a turnaround jumper that provided a 65-57 cushion with 2:59 remaining.

The Hawks will return to West Hartford for two straight games beginning with a Sunday afternoon showdown with the St. John's Red Storm. St. John's will enter the Chase Family Arena at the Reich Family Pavilion as the first ranked team to visit Hartford and also represent the first of three BIG EAST teams to visit campus in the non-conference season. Hartford and St. John's are scheduled for a 2:00 p.m. tip-off in a game to be shown live on CPTV Sports throughout Connecticut.