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West Hartford, Conn. – The Hartford women's basketball team saw its win streak come to an end on Saturday as the Boston University Terriers scored a 57-52 victory in the regular season finale. Junior Ruthanne Doherty continued her double digit scoring streak, leading the Hawks (19-11, 10-6 America East) with 18 points.
Prior to the contest, the Hawks honored their lone senior Keyokah Mars-Garrick who played her final regular season contest in a Hartford uniform. Mars-Garrick made her fifth career start in today's game and finished two points, three rebounds, three assists and three steals. The three take-a-ways for the Montville, Conn. native sets a new career high, while the three assists ties a career best for Mars-Garrick.
With the victory, the Terriers locked up the regular season championship and the top seed in the upcoming America East Championship, while Hartford, who locked in third place on Wednesday night, will meet the #6 seed Binghamton Bearcats in the quarterfinals on Friday at 8:15 p.m. The 2012 America East Men's and Women's Basketball Championship will be played at the Chase Family Arena at the Reich Family Pavilion for the third straight year. The first round, quarterfinals and semifinals will all be held in West Hartford, while the championship games for both the men and the women will be held on the home court of the highest remaining seed on Saturday, March 10.
Doherty's 18 points is the ninth straight game the junior post has surpassed double figures in the scoring column. She was joined by one other Hawk, classmate Alex Hall in leading the team. Hall finished with 13 points, including three three point buckets. Hall finished the game leading the pair from the field on 5-of-9 shooting, while Doherty finished 6-of-14. Doherty was also 6-of-8 at the free throw line.
As a team, the Hawks finished the game outshooting their opposition connecting on 19-of-47 from the field for 40.4 percent. The Terriers finished the contest with a 17-of-50 overall shooting effort for 34.0 percent. Boston University took advantage of 19 Hawks fouls, going 19-of-21 at the free throw line, while the Hawks went to the line 12 times and made nine. Mo Moran led the Terriers with 20 points.
The Terriers held a significant advantage on the boards with a 41-23 final margin. Caroline Stewart led all players in the game with 11 rebounds, while Hall led the Hawks efforts with five rebounds. The Hawks did finish the contest with 15 assists, out of their 19 shots, with Hall again leading the team in that category with five.
The Hawks would score the first two buckets of a contest that saw seven lead changes and nine stalemates, while neither team led by more than six points. Doherty provided the first points of the game on a layup off a feed from Hall, while Hall provided the next bucket 20 seconds later off a feed from Daphne Elliott.
Hartford would keep that lead for nearly the first 12 minutes of the game, extending it to the Hawks largest of six on two occasions. Doherty provided the Hawks first six point lead with 13:30 remaining, while a pair of free throws from Elliott extended the Hawks lead to six again one minute later.
BU responded to that second six point advantage with a 7-0 run that led to the games first lead change, 16-15 in favor of the Terriers with 8:23 remaining. Moran provided five points in that run for the Boston University on a pair of free throws and a three pointer.
The Hawks answered that lead change by scoring the next six points of the game to regain a five point advantage. Amber Bepko provided three of the Hawks points in that run with her 16th three pointer of the season, which was her only bucket in the game.
The Hawks would keep that lead until a three pointer from Kristen Sims provided the Terriers with a three point lead with just under 90 seconds remaining before the halftime break. Hartford would respond with a three pointer from Alex Hall 17 seconds later, which was the final bucket of the half and provided the 28-28 stalemate at the break.
Once returning to the court, The Hawks again provided the first points on a three pointer from Hall 105 seconds into the action. The Terriers would quickly tie things up with a layup and free throw from Rashidat Agboola, for what was the third tie in the game.
Strong defense on both end of the floor over the next five minutes held the teams to a combined nine points, seven of which came from the Hawks. Those seven points led to the Hawks largest lead in the second half 38-33 with 12:18 remaining in the game.
Boston University tied things up less than three minutes later, a tie that was the first of five over the next four-plus minutes before the Terriers broke the ninth tie of the game and took advantage for good with a layup from Whitney Turner with 3:52 remaining. That basket would be the final of the game for Boston University, but the Terriers wouldn't let down at the free throw line as the finished out the game 7-of-8 at the line over the final 1:37.
