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WEST HARTFORD, Conn. – The University of Hartford men's basketball team could not put enough points up on the scoreboard on Wednesday night as the visiting Vermont Catamounts grinded out a 49-43 win at the Chase Family Arena at the Reich Family Pavilion. The Hawks, who drop to 11-10 overall, fall to 4-4 in league play.

For the third time in four games, sophomore Mark Nwakamma paced Hartford's scoring, finishing with 12 points and adding eight rebounds, a game-high. For Vermont (14-7, 7-2 AE), Brian Voelkel matched Nwakamma's 12 points and handed out four assists on the evening.

In a sloppy first half that featured 23 combined turnovers, Vermont grabbed its largest advantage of the stretch at 20-15 with 3:46 remaining. Prior to that, the Hawks held a four point advantage at 15-11 after receiving a three from freshman Parker U'u, but were then held off the scoreboard for a stretch of nearly five minutes, allowing the visiting squad to push ahead on a 9-0 run.

Hartford rattled-off six unanswered points to end the half, but Voelkel drained a jumper with 35 seconds left to put Vermont ahead at the break, 22-21.

In the first possession of the second, Jamie Schneck hooked in a layup just 12 seconds in to shift the advantage back in favor of Hartford. The Hawks continued to roll as they extending their spurt to 15-6 and led 36-28 with 14:04 left on the clock.

Yolonzo Moore II capped-off the rally and provided Hartford with its largest advantage of the night after forcing Clancy Rugg into a turnover and going coast-to-coast for a dunk on the other end. The Hawks were unable to expand on that lead, however, as they were plagued by a stretch of cold shooting.

Hartford was held without a single point until the 5:19 mark, and during that nine-minute span, the Catamounts slowly chipped away at their deficit. Voelkel completed the comeback for the visiting squad with a pair of free throws and Josh Elbaum closed out Vermont's 11-0 run with a layup to take a 39-36 lead.

Despite the continued offensive struggles, the Hawks stayed within striking reach as a three pointer from John Peterson made it a 45-43 ball game with over two minutes left. Nwakamma had the potential game-tying shot rim out with 74 seconds left and Wes Cole was off the mark on a three-pointer with 25 seconds remaining, allowing Vermont, which was in the bonus for the final 11 minutes, to close out the game from the charity stripe.

Nearly half of the Hawks' 50 shot attempts came from three-point land, where they shot a season-low 17.2-percent (5-of-29) on the evening. Overall, Hartford was 34.0-percent (17-of-50), making the last amount of field goals all season, and also had its share of struggles from the charity stripe, converting on 4-of-10 opportunities. The Hawks shot 57.1-percent from inside of the arc, but only saw 21 attempts come from that area of the court.

Moore added seven points for Hartford, which had 13 offensive boards, including seven on a single possession.

Hartford returns to action on Sat., Feb. 2 when it hosts league foe Boston University at 7:00 p.m.