BOX SCORE

West Hartford, Conn. – The Hartford women's basketball team saw its season come to an end on Friday night, dropping a 59-42 decision to the visiting Syracuse Orange in the opening round of the WNIT at the Chase Family Arena at the Reich Family Pavilion. The Hawks close out the 2011-12 season with a 19-13 overall record.

Hartford struggled to find the hoop in the second half, shooting just 18.5 percent on 5-of-27, and finished the game shooting 26.4 percent overall on 14-of-53. Junior Ruthanne Doherty led the Hawks for the game with eight points and grabbed a game-best 11 rebounds as the Hawks finished with a 37-36 advantage on the glass against a team that averages more than nine rebounds more than their opponents.

Leading the Hawks scoring was rookie Amber Bepko who finished with nine points, including a pair of three pointers. Following Bebko and Doherty was Daphne Elliott and Taylor Clark who both came off the bench to finish with six points, including the first career three pointer for Clark.

Defensively, the Hawks held the Orange's three leading scorers, who bring a combined 40.8 points in average totals to the table, to just 19 points total, including a low of three points for the second leading scorers Kayla Alexander who averages 14.6 per-game. Rachel Coffer and Elashier Hall led the Orange with 12 and 10 points respectively.

Syracuse forced the Hawks into 22 turnovers, the most for the Hawks since January 27, and turned those mishandles into 26 points, while Hartford worked 17 points off of the Orange's 16 turnovers. The Orange also led the battle in the paint with an 18-12 advantage, while the teams were evenly matched in second chance points. Hartford held Syracuse to 12 offensive rebounds, despite their average of more than 20 per game.