THE BASICS:

RESULT: Hartford 52, Vermont 50 (ot)
RECORDS: Hartford (11-14, 7-5 AE), Vermont (7-18, 2-10 AE)
LOCATION: Chase Family Arena at Reich Family Pavilion
ATTENDANCE: 1, 440

THE LEAD: Sophomore Darby Lee took a feed from freshman Lindsey Abed on the block and hit a turnaround jumper before the final buzzer to propel the University of Hartford women's basketball team past Vermont, 52-50 in overtime on Sunday. It marked the second-straight game that the Hawks took an opponent down to the wire, and beat them with a bucket in the final seconds of action.

Scoring the game-winning bucket with one tick remaining on the clock, Lee pushed her team-best point total to 15. Sophomore Janelle Harrison added a double-double in the victory – the first of her career – after pulling down a career-high 16 rebounds while adding 14 points, two blocks, an assist and a steal. Kylie Atwood led the Catamounts in the losing effort with 17 points.

FIRST HALF:
The opening half proved to be a tightly-contested battle throughout, with neither team pulling ahead by more than four points. With both sides getting off to quiet starts on the offensive side of the ball, Hartford surged ahead to a 13-9 lead with under a minute to play in the first quarter on the strength of back-to-back baskets junior Alyssa Reaves and a transition bucket by Abed on a steal from Kelly Douglass. The four points would become Hartford's biggest lead of the half, as Vermont answered Hawks baskets to keep it close.

In the second quarter, back-to-back buckets inside by Lee pushed the Hawks ahead to the tune of a 21-17 score with 5:58 to play in the half. But Vermont would again provide an answer, as it went on to pull ahead, 25-23, on a three by Atwood. The lead would again change hands for the seventh time in the half, though, as free throws from Lee and a nifty basket inside by Katelyn Skinner put the Hawks back on top, 27-25, at the break.

SECOND HALF:
Quickly extending its halftime edge to four out of the gates with a Harrison layup, the Hawks pushed their advantage to as much as six on two occasions in the third quarter. Abed knocked down a triple to make it a 36-30 lead with 6:47 left before Harrison again provided that six-point edge a minute later on a layup. But Hartford would be held without a score for the rest of the stanza, allowing Vermont to tie things up at 38-38 with a 6-0 run over the final 5:46. Candice Wright contributed four of the Catamounts' points during that stretch, including a layup in the final 12 seconds to make it a new ball game.

The beginning of the fourth quarter saw the Hawks get back into the groove offensively, as they opened up the stretch with an 8-0 run over the first 5:12. Following buckets from Lee and Abed,Douglass capped the rally with a three-pointer on a pass from Harrison to put Hartford ahead by a 46-38 count. But again, Vermont clawed away at its deficit. Sydney Smith went back-to-back from three-point land at the 3:08 and 1:27 marks to close the gap to two at 46-44. Over the next 70 seconds, Hartford and Vermont would trade missed shots and turnovers, and with seven seconds left, Atwood would drill the game-tying jumper to make it a 46-46 contest. Advancing the ball with a timeout, the Hawks were unable to get a layup to fall, forcing overtime for the third time this season.

OVERTIME:
The Hawks missed their first five shots in overtime, but got their lone bucket to fall when it mattered most. With 64 seconds remaining, Lee pulled the Hawks out of their first disadvantage of the session – a two-point deficit – and tied up the contest at 50-all with a pair of free throws. On the next possession, Hartford forced Vermont into its 23rd turnover of the day and had a chance at the go-ahead bucket, but Harrison came up empty on a layup. She did come away with the huge offensive board, though, giving the Hawks one more crack on the offensive end.

Hartford called for a 30-second timeout following Harrison's rebound with 10 seconds remaining. Abed, who had the ball on the far wing, fed Lee, who was posting up on the block. The sophomore took her defender one-on-one, faking one way, and broke open the deadlock by finishing with a turnaround jumper with just over one second remaining on the clock. Vermont used its final timeout to advance the ball past midcourt, but Atwood's runner at the buzzer was way off the mark, sending Hartford to its second-straight victory.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS:

• Harrison's double-double (14 points, 16 rebounds) was the first of the sophomore's career. Three other players (Hall, Deanna Mayza and Alyssa Reaves) have registered double-doubles for the Hawks this season.
• Lee strung together her second-straight double-digit scoring game on Sunday with her team-high 16 points. She now has 10 games in double figures this season.
• Defensively, Hartford forced a season-best in turnovers as Vermont committed 23 on the afternoon. The Hawks, who had 17 turns overall, scored 19 points off of the Catamounts' miscues.
• Hartford shot 31.7 percent (20-of-63) on the afternoon to Vermont's 30.5 percent (18-of-59).
• The five blocked shots recorded by the Hawks marked a season-best effort while Harrison's 16 boards are the most collected by a Hawk in a single game this season.

NEWS & NOTES:

• Each of Hartford's last two wins have been decided by shots in the final seconds of the game as senior Katelyn Skinner provided the Hawks' game-winning basket in last Thursday's 41-39 triumph at Binghamton.
• Each of the Hawks' last four games have been close ones, as they beat UMass Lowell in overtime (75-70) and dropped a three-point decision at home to Stony Brook (45-42) before picking up buzzer-beating wins over Binghamton (41-39) and Vermont (52-50 ot).
• With the victory, head coach Jen Rizzotti improves her all-time coaching record to 316-211.
• Sunday's win extended Hartford's win streak against Vermont to 10 games. The Hawks improve to 32-36 in the all-time series, and locked up their second series' sweep of the season with the victory.
• Hartford has faced overtime three times this season, including twice in the month of February, and improves to 2-1 in those contests.
• Sunday's game marked Hartford's annual Pink Zone game, as the Hawks wore pink to help raise breast cancer awareness on the court and in the community.

UP NEXT:                                                                     
The Hawks hit the road for their next two, beginning with a trip to UMBC on Wednesday, Feb. 17. Tipoff from RAC Arena in Baltimore is set for 7 p.m. Hartford will be looking to secure the series sweep with the Retrievers as it scored a 65-57 victory at home last month.