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WEST HARTFORD, Conn. – The University of Hartford men's basketball team knocked-off the first-place Stony Brook Seawolves, 60-55, on Sunday afternoon at the Reich Family Pavilion behind a 23-point effort from sophomore Mark Nwakamma. Freshman Evan Cooper added 11 points in the win, helping the Hawks improve to 14-10 overall and 7-4 in the America East while snapping a nine-game skid to the Seawolves (17-6, 8-2 AE).

With five games to go in the regular season, the seven wins in league play matches last season's total for the Hawks, who have recorded the most wins in a season since the 2007-08 campaign. Hartford currently sits in third-place in the America East standings, tied with the Boston University Terriers.

Nwakamma shot 10-of-14 from the floor, pouring in several clutch baskets from the low block for the Hawks to earn his third-straight 20-plus point game. Sophomore Nate Sikma finished with nine points, all from behind the arc, while classmate Yolonzo Moore II and graduate student John Peterson added six points apiece.

Trailing 32-27 at the half, Hartford quickly found itself down by nine after Jameel Warney, who had already totaled 12 points before the intermission and finished with 21, opened up the second with back-to-back buckets. Despite Stony Brook scoring seven of the first 10 points to start the final period, the Hawks remained poised and erased their 39-30 deficit in no time, hitting triples on three-straight possessions to tie up the game at 39-39 with 15:47 remaining.

Peterson got the rally going, making his second trey of the afternoon in as many attempts at the 16:24 mark. After forcing a Seawolves' miss, Sikma buried one from downtown to make it 39-36 before 37 seconds later, Cooper completed the comeback off another empty Stony Brook possession and knotted the score at 39 with his third three-pointer of the outing.

From there, the Hawks continued their hot shooting from three-point land as Wes Cole got in on the action, providing his team with a four-point lead at 44-40 with 12:23 to go.

Stony Brook fired back, reeling-off a 5-0 run to regain its lead at 45-44, but Hartford again showed poise and scored the next nine points to grab its largest lead of the afternoon (8) at the 4:20 mark. Nwakamma netted seven-straight points to start that stretch to put the Hawks out in front while Moore capped off the spurt with an eight-footer to provide his team with a 53-45 advantage heading into the closing minutes.

The next few possessions came up empty for Hartford, though, and Stony Brook capitalized, scoring six unanswered points with a three from Anthony Jackson making it a two-point game with less than three minutes left to play. Again, Hartford immediately provided the answer. Sikma, who pushed the Hawks' lead back to five with a deep trey, came up with a huge steal on the next play, which on the ensuing possession led to a game-clinching dunk from Nwakamma with 97 seconds remaining.

Hartford was outrebounded, 32-25, allowing Stony Brook to score 16 second chance points off 13 offensive boards. Converting on 51.1% of their shot attempts (23-of-45), including 43.5% from downtown (10-of-23), the Hawks shot well in the first (44.0%), but were even better in the final half, shooting 12-of-20 (60.0%) from the field. Stony Brook got off to a hot start from the floor, going 14-of-26 (53.8%) in the opening half. The visiting squad cooled down, though, making just 33.3-percent of its 24 second-half shot attempts to finish at a clip of 44.0-percent.

From the bench, the Hawks received contribution from five players who totaled 22 points and outscored that of the Seawolves by 14. Eighteen of Hartford's points came off of 15 Stony Brook turnovers.

Hartford's last win over Stony Brook came five years ago on Feb. 14, 2008, a 53-51 decision in West Hartford.

The Hawks play their next game on the road as they travel to Orono to take on the Maine Black Bears on Wednesday at Alfond Arena with tip-off set for 7:30 p.m.