Box Score SEATTLE, Wash. – The University of Hartford men's basketball team put up a good fight, but the University of Washington escaped with a 73-67 win on its home court Sunday night. Ending a two-game win-streak, the Hawks fall to 5-9 while the Huskies improve their mark to 8-5 overall.

Junior Mark Nwakamma filled up the stat sheet despite foul trouble, shooting 8-for-10 from the field and 3-for-4 from the free throw line to finish with a team-best 21 points. The forward was joined in double figures by Nate Sikma and Evan Cooper, who finished with 16 and 15 points, respectively.

The Hawks shot the ball well, converting on 55.8 percent (24-for-43) of their attempts from the field and 50.0 percent (9-for-18) from three-point territory. Despite making four more field goals than Washington, which shot 44.4 percent overall, Hartford visited the line just 13 times, making 17 less trips than the Huskies.

In a game that featured 11 ties and 18 lead changes, it was the free throw line that made the difference for Washington. The Huskies made 26-of-30 free throws (86.7 percent) and lived from the line in the second half, going 19-for-22 in the final stanza.

Nwakamma had 11 first-half points, knocking down two from downtown to keep it a one possession game at the halftime break. The Hawks built a five-point advantage, their largest of the game with, with 3:53 left in the first before Washington closed out the half by scoring 10 of the final 13 points to take a slight 31-29 edge into the locker room.

Making seven of their first 10 shots to start the second, the Hawks found themselves ahead, 47-43, with 11:41 to go. During that opening stretch, CJ Wilcox, who finished with a game-best 23 points, heated up and kept the Huskies in the game with a pair of threes.

The game continued to remain tight as the lead see-sawed back-and-forth. Wilcox drained a pair of free throws at the 7:48 mark to put the Huskies back in front at 52-51 before Sikma, who was playing in front of a hometown crowd, silenced the Washington fans and gave his team the lead with a deep three with less than seven minutes left.

But Wilcox answered back for Washington, making his third triple of the half to regain the lead for the Huskies, 58-57, with 5:30 on the clock. He then went to the line four times in one possession and made three of those shots after a Hawk technical foul to make it a 61-57 deficit for Hartford.

Again, Hartford came back, using three-straight buckets to go up by two with 2:31 left. A Nwakamma jumper provided the 10th deadlock of the contest while a layup from sophomore guard Evan Cooper made it a 65-63 game. But momentum shifted in favor of Washington over the next minute as Wilcox provided the 11th, and final, tie of the night on a jumper to spark a 6-0 run for the home team.

Following a missed jumper by Sikma with 90 seconds to go, Nigel Williams-Goss continued the Huskies' rally with a jumper and Andrew Andrews, who went 5-for-6 from the line, capped the spurt with two free throws to put the Huskies back in front at 69-65 with just under a minute to go.

Sophomore guard Evan Cooper made a layup to cut the gap to two with 44.6 seconds left, but the Huskies converted out of a timeout as Wilcox earned a pair of game-clinching free throws with 17 seconds remaining.  

Both teams finished with 23 rebounds as Hartford was led by five from Sikma.

The New Year brings in the start of America East Conference play for Hartford as it continues a three-game road swing at Albany on Saturday, January 4. Game time from SEFCU Arena, the site of the 2014 America East Men's and Women's Basketball Championship, is set for 7 p.m.