Box Score ALBANY, N.Y. – The University of Hartford men's basketball team dropped its America East Conference opener on Saturday night as it fell, 81-56 at UAlbany, the reigning league champion. With the loss, their second-straight, the Hawks fall to 5-10 while the Great Danes improve to 7-7 overall, including a 1-0 record in the conference.

Junior Mark Nwakamma led the Hawks with 13 points while Wes Cole added nine, making 3-of-6 from downtown. The forward needs just 11 more to become the 24th 1,000-point scorer in program history. Yolonzo Moore II rounded out Hartford's top-scorers with eight points.

Hartford had trouble stopping the outside shooting of UAlbany as the three-point line proved to be the deciding factor of the evening. Entering the game averaging just three triples per game, the Great Danes knocked down 16 from long range on scorching 69.6 percent shooting (16-for-23). Peter Hooley had five of his six triples in the opening stanza, four of which fueled a 16-0 run that helped the Great Danes open up a 20-point lead early on.

Hooley finished with a game-best 25 points, adding six assists and five rebounds to his stat line.

Despite facing a 36-16 first-half deficit, the Hawks showed life in the closing minutes, making it a single digit game before the halftime horn sounded. With 4:35 left, Cole sparked the offense by sinking his second three-pointer on the night before Moore slammed-in a dunk off a steal on the ensuing possession to close the gap to 15.

Hartford kept chipping away at its disadvantage as it rattled off a 9-3 spurt to end the stanza, limiting UAlbany to points from the charity stripe. Moore and Cole contributed a layup and a three, respectively, before junior Jamie Schneck capped his team's half-ending, 7-0 run with his second basket of the contest to provide the halftime margin of 39-30.

Out of the break, Nwakamma scored Hartford's first seven points, but UAlbany improved upon its 66.7 percent first-half, three-point shooting percentage to quickly regain its 20-point lead, one that ballooned to as many as 25 with 5:59 remaining on the clock.

All but three of the Great Danes' 13 field goals in the final stretch came from outside of the three-point arc. D.J. Evans, who was held to just two free throws in the first 20 minutes, drilled six from long range in the second to finish with 20 on the evening.

The Hawks shot 41.2 percent (21-for-51) on the night, compared to UAlbany's clip of 58.1 percent (25-for-43). Hartford had a season-low in turnovers, committing just five.

The non-conference schedule comes to an end on Tuesday as Hartford travels to Hanover, N.H., on Tuesday night to face Dartmouth. Game time between the Hawks and the Big Green is set for 7 p.m. from Leete Gymnasium.