BOX SCORE
PHOTO GALLERY
West Hartford, Conn. – The University of Hartford women's basketball teams' streak continues with a home victory over the UMBC Retrievers 66-54, taking over third place in the league standings with two regular season games remaining. Hartford (18-10 overall, 9-5 America East) was led by freshman guard Amber Bepko who finished with a career-high 18 points, one of four Hawks in double figures.
Bepko's career night came by way of 7-of-15 from the field and 4-of-9 from beyond the arc, while she added four rebounds, four steals and a pair of assists, playing all but two minutes. Joining the rookie in double figures was Ruthanne Doherty who finished with 18 points, Nikkia Smith who added 13 and Alex Hall who finished with 12 points, all from beyond the arc.
Doherty finished with her fourth double double of the season with 11 rebounds leading all players in the game and leading the Hawks to a 37-27 advantage on the boards. The double double for Doherty is also just the fourth of the season for Hartford with her accounting for each one.
As a team, the Hawks finished the game shooting 41.1 percent overall (23-of56), including a second half performance of 13-of-27 for 48.1 percent. The Hawks finished the contest with a season best nine three pointers, led by Bepko and Hall who each finished with four long range buckets. Combined, Hartford shot 45 percent from beyond the arc on 9-of-20, while finishing with an 84.6 percent performance at the free throw line on 11-of-13.
Hartford also finished the game with 19 assists, the most since the start of conference play. Hall led the team with a season high seven assists, one shy of her career best. Smith finished with four assists, while Doherty added three and Bepko and Daphne Elliott each added a pair.
The Hawks opened the game missing their first two shots, which allowed the Retrievers (14-13, 8-6 AE) to take an early 4-0 lead, one they wouldn't give up for the first 8:30 of the game. The Hawks wouldn't manage their first lead in the game until a three pointer from Elliott with 11:29 to play in the game. The Retrievers never saw their lead grow to more than four in those opening minutes, matching that opening lead with an 8-4 advantage with 15:55 remaining, which came on a layup from Lauren Chase.
Once gaining that lead with 11:29 remaining in the first half, the Hawks would never give it up, despite a layup from Erin Brown providing the first and only tie score in the game at 12-12 with 11:06 before the break. The Hawks answered that stalemate with back-to-back three pointers from Hall to pull ahead by an 18-12 margin in less than 1:10.
That six point margin for the Hawks would stand for nearly five minutes as both teams struggled through a scoring drought. The Hawks would manage to force four turnovers on the Retrievers in that stretch. UMBC would break that scoreless streak with a layup from Brown with 5:29 remaining before a three pointer from Bepko opened up the Hawks largest lead of the first half 21-14 with 5:01 left in the half.
A 5-0 run for UMBC quickly pulled the Retrievers within a single bucket with all five points coming within a 41 second span. UMCB would manage to get within a point of Hartford on three occasions the rest of the half, including twice after breaking up back-to-back baskets for Hartford that led to a five point Hawks lead with 2:13 remaining. A jumper from Chase would provide the final points of the half and leading to the Hawks 28-27 advantage at the half time intermission. Chase led all players in the first half with 14 points, but was held to just a single point in the second half.
Hartford came out of the break and saw its lead grow into double digits with the first five minutes, using a 10-0 run that spanned 2:13 and gave the Hawks their largest lead up to that point of 13 with 13:51 remaining in the game. The final bucket of that run was a three pointer from Hall, while a jump shot from Cherelle Moore a little over a minute later again extended the Hawks lead back to 13 with 12:35 remaining.
That 13 point lead was quickly whittled down to a one bucket advantage as the Retrievers answered with a 10-0 run of their own to pull within three 48-45 with 7:20 remaining in the contest. Four different players would score in the UMBC run with Tope Obajolu and Kristin Coles each leading the way with four points.
The Hawks answered that run with back-to-back buckets to extend the lead back to seven with 5:33 remaining. With UMBC managing a single free throw over more than a five minute span, the Hawks opened their lead back to double digits with 4:26 remaining in the game, that lead of which came on a three pointer from Bepko.
UMBC would get no closer than nine points the rest of the way, that deficit coming on two occasions, the last of which was with 1:59 remaining in the game and coming by way of a pair of free throws from Obajolu. Hartford would then close out the contest with three free throws in the final 1:21 to secure the victory.
The Hawks will play their final road contest in the regular season on Wednesday (February 22) when they travel to Stony Brook University for a 7:00 p.m. tip against the Seawolves.
