THE BASICS:

RESULT: Hartford 68, Albany 59
LOCATION: SEFCU Arena (Albany, N.Y.)
ATTENDANCE: 2,535
RECORDS: Hartford (10-22, 4-12 America East); Albany (24-8, 13-3)

THE LEAD:
Pancake Thomas led all scorers with 16 points and freshman JR Lynch drilled a clutch three-pointer with a minute to play, as the seventh-seeded Hartford men's basketball team upset No. 2 seed Albany in the America East Tournament Quarterfinals. The win snapped a 19-game home winning streak for the Great Danes and eliminated the three-time defending Tournament champions from the tourney.
 
Jalen Ross delivered 13 points and five assists and George Blagojevic added 13 points and eight boards in the win for the Hawks. TreVaughn Wilkerson had another stout game with six points, five rebounds and three blocks. Ray Sanders led the Great Danes with 13 points and Peter Hooley added 11 in a losing effort.

FIRST HALF:
The teams came out of the locker room even, with the teams battling back-and-forth to a 7-5 score in favor of Albany. But the Hawks went on an 8-0 run consisting of two Thomas triples and a thunderous dunk by Wilkerson that made it 13-7. Albany was able to stem the tide, though, and cut the lead down to three at 16-13 with 9:19 left in the half.
 
At that juncture, the Hawks caught fire on both ends. Triples by Evan Cooper, Jack Hobbs, Thomas, Lynch and finally a four-point play by Thomas – his sixth of the year – were offset by just two Albany free throws, as Hartford's 16-2 run built the lead to a game-high 17. From there, the two teams traded points to the halftime buzzer, with the Hawks entering the locker room up 38-21.
 
The Hawks' defense held Albany to just 8-for-28 from the field, while Hartford shot 14-for-29, including 9-for-17 from beyond the three-point line.

SECOND HALF:
The Hawks pushed it back up to 19 out of the locker room on a tough two inside by Blagojevic. Then, after the teams traded baskets, UAlbany mounted a charge, delivering an 8-0 run to cut the lead to 10. The Hawks went back inside, and buckets down low by Wilkerson and Blagojevic keyed a 7-0 run that was capped by a Blagojevic triple to make it 49-32. The Hawks then pushed the lead to 18 at the 13:32 mark.
 
But Albany locked down defensively at that juncture, and put together a 10-0 run over the next 5:22 to cut the lead down to just eight. A layup for Ross started a 6-1 run to push the lead back up to 13, but Albany delivered a 7-0 run of its own to trim the lead to six. Then, after Hartford got the lead back to eight, a three-point play for Ray Sanders made the score 60-55 with 1:27 to play.
 
The Hawks ran the clock on the ensuing possession, but Lynch came up huge, as Ross drove the lane and dished to the right corner, where the freshman drilled a triple just before the shot clock expired to put the lead back to eight with a minute to play. From there, the Hawks were able to lock down defensively, and finish off the nine-point win.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS:
• Thomas now has 548 points on the season, the 12^th most in Hartford history and the eighth most in the Hawks' Division I history.
• Ross finished in double figures for the 13^th consecutive game. He is now averaging 15.1 points in the last 13 games.
• Hartford had 14 assists to just nine turnovers, marking the 10^th time this year that the Hawks have finished with single-digit turns.
• The Hawks went 12-for-14 at the free-throw line, the eighth time in the last 13 games that Hartford has shot 80 percent or better at the stripe.
• Hartford limited Albany to just 20-for-59 (.339) from the floor, the Great Danes' second-lowest shooting percentage of the season. It marked the first time since Jan. 12 that Albany had been held under 40 percent.

UP NEXT:
Hartford will now move on to the America East Semifinals, where it will take on No. 1 seed Stony Brook on Monday night. Game time is set for 7 p.m. in IFCU Arena and the game will be televised on ESPN3. The contest will also be carried on the Talk of Connecticut 1360 AM with Jeff Dooley and Randy LaVigne on the call.