Box Score UNCASVILLE, Conn. – For the second-straight game, sophomore Taylor Dyson led the University of Hartford men's basketball team in scoring, but the Hawks got off to a slow start on Sunday and fell to Holy Cross, 80-55, in the final contest of the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame Tournament. Closing out the four-game tournament with a 1-3 mark, the Hawks drop to 2-5 on the season while Holy Cross improves to 3-3.

Coming one point shy of matching his career-high established last night against Hofstra, Dyson scored 15 points while classmate Evan Cooper also finished in double figures for the second-straight game. Contributing all 14 of his points in the second half, Cooper helped the Hawks turn around one of their worst first-half performances in recent years.

After compiling 13 turnovers to start the game, Hartford did a better job taking care of the ball in the second, committing eight over the final 20 minutes. In addition, the Hawks followed-up a cold 7.7 percent effort from the floor – a span that featured just one first-half field goal – by shooting 14-for-27 (51.9 percent) down the stretch.

It was too little too late, though, for Hartford, which dug itself a 21-point deficit (35-14) at the half. Despite turning around an 0-for-6 effort from three-point territory by draining nine from long range, including six in the game's final 8:41, the Hawks couldn't claw their way back from what was a 60-28 disadvantage.

Hartford opened up the game with six turnovers in the first five minutes, allowing the Crusaders to take an early 9-1 advantage. One point would be the only offense the Hawks would receive during the opening 10 minutes as a Yasin Kolo free throw 102 seconds in was the only notch on the scoreboard for quite some time.

Adding nine more points to its total, Holy Cross extended its run to 16 unanswered points to go up, 18-1, with 9:01 left. Eric Green closed out that spurt by scoring six of his 14 first half points on three-straight layups to push the Crusaders' advantage to 17. He went on to finish with a game-best 18 points, matching that of teammate Dave Dudzinski.

Junior Mark Nwakamma ended that run with a pair of free throws, but it would be another five minutes until Hartford converted on its first field goal of the contest. Oren Faulk, a senior, laid one in with 3:11 on the clock to put the Hawks into double digits and make it a 26-10 game.

In the final seconds of the first, Justin Burrell drilled a jumper from the baseline to put Holy Cross ahead by a 35-14 count at the break. Dyson led Hartford's first-half scorers with six points, making all six of his attempts from the charity stripe. From the line, the Hawks were 81.3 percent before halftime, going 13-for-16.

Hartford picked up the pace in the second, needing just nine minutes to double its offensive output from the first half. A trio of treys from juniors Corban Wroe, Nwakamma and Yolonzo Moore II helped the Hawks keep pace with the Crusaders at 49-28, but Holy Cross reeled off its largest run of the half (11-0) to go ahead by 32 with 8:52 left to play.

The Hawks managed to close the gap to 19 at 70-51 with 3:53 remaining thanks to three triples from Cooper and one from Dyson, but wouldn't come any closer to Holy Cross, which closed out the game by scoring 10 of the final 14 points.

Joining Dudzinski and Green in twin figures for Holy Cross was Malachi Alexander who scored 13 off the bench. Holy Cross shot the ball at a 68.2 percent clip in the second to finish at a scorching 58.7 percent for the night.

The Hawks are off until Saturday, November 30 when they return home for just the second time this season to play host to Yale at 4 p.m.