THE BASICS:

RESULT: UMass Lowell 71, Hartford 55
LOCATION: Costello Athletic Center (Lowell, Mass.)
ATTENDANCE: 512
RECORDS: Hartford (5-13, 0-3 America East); UMass Lowell (8-10, 3-1 America East)

THE LEAD:
UMass Lowell continued its strong start to conference play, moving to 3-1 in the league with a 71-55 victory over the Hartford men's basketball team on Saturday. Jahad Thomas delivered a triple-double with 19 points, 19 rebounds and 10 assists in the victory for the River Hawks.
 
Jalen Ross led the way for Hartford with 19 points and three steals, but no other Hawks finished in double figures. Andrew Ramirez and John Carroll each netted eight points in a losing effort.
 
Tyler Livingston (17), Ryan Jones (14) and Logan Primerando (10) all finished in double figures in the scoring column for the home squad.

FIRST HALF:
The Hawks got on the board first with a Jason Dunne three-ball from the left wing, but UML netted consecutive baskets to earn a 4-3 lead. The teams then traded points to a 10-10 score at the 13:29 mark after a Thomas tip-in. But the visitors embarked on a 7-0 run featuring a putback layup by Hassan Attia and a nice jumper for George Blagojevic to make it 17-10.
 
From there, neither team was able to mount much of a rally, each team answering the other's scoring, to a 26-19 mark after a Ross jumper. Later, a Blagojevic layup pushed the lead to 29-22 with 3:07 left. But Lowell delivered a rally to end the half, putting forth an 8-2 run, culminating with four straight free throws, to enter the locker room down 31-30.

SECOND HALF:
The home squad came out on fire to open the second half, netting the first 10 points of the stanza to garner a 40-31 lead before a Dunne jumper snapped the run. A nice sequence for Jack Hobbs featured a block and a beautiful assist to Attia to make it 40-35, but UML delivered the next five points to take a 45-35 advantage. The teams then traded points to a 51-41 score with 8:35 left.
 
A Ross triple and a John Carroll layup started the Hawks on a 9-3 run to cut the lead to just four, 54-50, after a Dunne steal and dunk with 5:15 left. The squads then traded points to 56-52, but UMass Lowell got four straight conversions and a trio of stops to push the advantage back to 65-52 with 2:15 remaining, and was able to hold the visitors at bay to the final whistle.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS:

• Ross extended his double-figure scoring streak to 32-straight games, dating back to January of last year. He finished with three steals, one shy of his season best.
• Ramirez matched his career high with eight points, going 4-for-5 at the free-throw line in the process.
• The Hawks shot a season-low 30 percent from the field, going 18-for-60 overall and 4-for-28 from beyond the arc.
• Eight different Hawks scored the first 24 points of the game for Hartford.

 
UP NEXT:
Hartford has a quick turnaround, as it will return to Chase Arena at Reich Family Pavilion on Monday afternoon for a Martin Luther King, Jr., Day matinee at 1 p.m. against Maine. Tickets are available by calling 860.768.HAWK (4295) and at HartfordHawks.com.