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WEST HARTFORD, Conn.  – The University of Hartford men's basketball team knocked off Emerson College at the Chase Family Arena at the Reich Family Pavilion, scoring an 83-50 win on Friday night. Posting its largest margin of victory (33 points) with four players putting up double-figures, the Hawks have reeled off five-straight wins and are off to the best start in their 31-year Division I history. Emerson dips to 2-4 with its second-straight loss.

Freshman John Carroll paced Hartford with 14 points, two shy of his career-high, on 5-of-8 shooting while senior forward Mark Nwakamma added 13 points and seven rebounds on a 6-for-8 effort from the floor. Rounding out the top-scorers were Wes Cole and Yolonzo Moore II, who had 11 and 10 points, respectively. Michael Thorpe led the Lions with 13 points, making 4-of-7 shots from downtown.

The Hawks shot a season-high 54.2 percent on the evening, including 60.6 percent in the final stanza, to put away the Lions. Taking a two-possession lead into the break at 32-26, Hartford scored 23 of the first 30 points of the second to go up, 55-33, with 11:36 left to play. A 15-0 run featuring seven points from Carroll pushed the Hawks' lead to 26 (70-36) with 7:33 to go. That lead ballooned to as much as 38 as Dougal Weir provided the Hawks with their largest edge of the season on a layup with 58 seconds left to play

Hartford held Emerson to just eight points in the paint and scored 25 of its points off 21 Lions' turnovers. The Hawks received 42 points from the bench – 38 in the second – including a season-high seven from sophomore guard Justin Graham.

The turnaround is short for the Hawks as they return to action on Sunday to face the Yale Bulldogs. Tipoff from John J. Lee Amphitheater is set for 2 p.m.

THE TURNING POINT:.
Taking a two-possession lead into the halftime break (32-26), the Hawks came out of the gates firing and put the Lions away early. Hartford opened up the stanza by scoring the first eight points to go up, 40-26, and never looked back from there. Going on to net 15 of the game's next 20 points, the Hawks rattled off a 15-0 run to push ahead by 36 points at 70-36. In that decisive half, Hartford shot 60.6-percent from the field (20-of-33), including 40.0-percent from three (4-of-10), and received 38 bench points highlighted by 12 points from freshman John Carroll and 11 from senior Wes Cole.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS: 

·         The Hawks put up the most points in a game this season against Emerson (80) and posted their first 80-plus point contest since defeating Binghamton, 89-83, in overtime in February

·         Hartford assisted on 21 of 32 of its field goals on the night, a season-best

·         Posting career-best numbers in assists (6) and minutes (31), sophomore guard Justin Graham added seven points, a season-best number

·         A season-high four Hawks turned in double-figures in the scoring column with freshman John Carroll leading the pack with 14 points

·         Emerson scored 27 of its 50 points from three on 9-of-24 shooting (37.5%); the Hawks made 8-of-24 shots from long range (33.3%) with senior Wes Cole going 3-of-7

·         For the first time this season, Hartford outrebounded its opponent, holding a 40-30 advantage on the boards

·         Hartford shot 54.2% (32-of-59) on the night, a season-best, including 60.6% (20-of-33) in the second half

·         The Hawks received 42 points from their bench, 20 more than Emerson, with 38 of those points coming in the second half

·         Hartford forced a season-high 21 turnovers, scoring 25 points off of the Lions' miscues

NEWS AND NOTES: 

·         Posting the win over Emerson, Hartford is off to the program's best start since (5-1) making the jump to Division I for the 1984-85 season; in addition, the 5-1 start is the program's best since 1976-77 (pre-Division I era), when it went 6-0

·         Hartford's five-game win-streak is the second longest in program history

·         The Hawks need just one more victory to make it six-in-a-row, a rally that would the longest win-streak in program history set in the 1993-94 season

·         The Hawks remain undefeated at home at 3-0 while improving their win-streak at Chase Family Arena to seven games

·         Outrebounding Emerson, 40-30, junior Taylor Dyson came one board short of his career-high with eight while sophomore Dougal Weir added a career-best seven

·         With his third of seven rebounds on the night, senior forward Mark Nwakamma became the 18th member of Hartford's 500/500 Club, joining former Hawks Joe Zeglinski and Vin Baker on the list

·         From the floor, Hartford shot 54.2-percent (32-of-59), a season-best effort

·         Freshmen walk-ons Noah Arciero and Mark Plousis scored their first career points in the win, finishing with two points apiece 

UP NEXT:
Hartford has a short turn around for its next game, as it heads to Yale, the 2013-14 CollegeBasketball.com Postseason Invitational (CIT) runner-up, for a Sunday matinee. The Hawks and Bulldogs are set for a 2 p.m. opening tip from John J. Lee Amphitheater in New Haven, Conn.