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WEST HARTFORD, Conn. – Junior Mark Nwakamma recorded a career-high in scoring Saturday night, helping the Hartford men's basketball team defeat New Hampshire, 61-59, at the Chase Family Arena. Chalking up their third-straight win, the Hawks (13-14 overall) improve to 7-5 in the America East while UNH (6-19) dips to 4-8 in conference action.

The win marked head coach John Gallagher's 50th since taking over at the helm of the Hawks prior to the start of the 2010-11 season.

A solid defensive effort down the final stretch coupled with 16 second-half points from Nwakamma helped Hartford erase a six-point deficit and come away with the victory. Shooting 10-of-19 from the field, Nwakamma netted a game-high 25 points, bettering his previous career-best of 24 points. He added seven rebounds to lead the battle of the boards for the third-straight game.

Sophomore Taylor Dyson and junior Yolonzo Moore II rounded out the top Hawk scorers, contributing nine points apiece. The Wildcats were paced by four players in double figures, led by Patrick Konan's 15 points. Konan shot 3-of-6 from the floor and 9-of-10 from the charity stripe, where UNH scored 15 of its points including 13 in the second half.

The first half was a slugfest as Hartford and New Hampshire exchanged the lead five times and had a pair of ties. Scoring eight of the final 10 points of the stanza, the Wildcats, who built their largest lead of six (26-20) on a Chris Bronner three-pointer 12 minutes in, found themselves ahead at the intermission with a 34-29 advantage. Daniel Dion led all scorers with 11 points at the break, but proved to be a non-factor in the second due to foul trouble.

The Wildcats maintained their edge for a good portion of the second. Hartford, however, never trailed by more than five down the stretch made it a single possession game on six occasions, but could never get over the hump.

That all changed with 6:57 remaining on the clock, though, as Dyson buried a three-pointer, the Hawks' fifth and final of the game, to cap a 5-0 run andput his team in front at 48-47. From that point, there were three more lead changes and five more draws until another Dyson bucket - a mid-range jumper - with three minutes left made it a 56-55 score in favor of the home team.

UNH got an answer with 2:37 left, using a deep three-pointer from Jaleen Smith to regain a 58-56 margin, but that proved to be the visiting team's final advantage of the contest. Less than 20 seconds later, Nwakamma delivered the game-tying basket on a layup before converting on another layup with 1:39 to go to put the Hawks back in front, 60-58.

Defense proved to be the deciding factor down the stretch, as juniors Nate Sikma and Jamie Schneck blocked back-to-back UNH attempts from under the basket, preventing the potential game-tying shot from reaching the cylinder. With 1:03 left, Patrick Konan made 1-of-2 from the charity stripe to bring the Wildcats within a single point.

UNH had a pair of chances to win or tie, both out of timeouts, in the closing minute. After Hartford came up empty on the other end following Konan's make from the line, the Hawks' forced a deep three out of Dion, one that was way off the mark. Three seconds later, following a made free throw from sophomore Evan Cooper, Frank Okeke could not get his layup to fall as Hartford scored its fourth-straight win over New Hampshire.

New Hampshire was held to just five made field goals in the second and shot 38.8 percent (19-of-49) overall to Hartford's 45.7 percent (21-of-46) effort. The Hawks committed just seven turnovers in the contest.

Heading into the final stretch of the regular season, the Hawks have two road games next on the schedule, starting with their first-ever trip to UMass Lowell on Wednesday. Tipoff from the Costello Athletic Center is slated for 7 p.m. Fans can watch all of the active live via AmericaEast.TV or can listen to the Jeff Dooley and Randy LaVigne's call on WCCC 1290AM (wccc.com).