THE BASICS:
 
RESULT: Hartford 68, Vermont 55
RECORDS: Hartford (10-4, 1-0 AE); Vermont (4-10, 1-1 AE)
LOCATION: Chase Arena at Reich Family Pavilion (West Hartford, Conn.)

THE LEAD:
Junior forward Janelle Harrison paced four University of Hartford women's basketball players in double figures with 15 points on Saturday to lead the Hawks to their third-straight win in a 68-55 defeat of the Vermont Catamounts at Reich Family Pavilion. Senior Deanna Mayza and freshman Sierra DaCosta chipped in with 12 points apiece as a dominant second quarter allowed the Hawks to cruise to the victory in their America East opener.

Hartford, which scored 34 points off 27 Vermont turnovers, led for all but three and a half minutes in the contest. Junior Darby Lee rounded out the Hawks' top scorers with 10 points, while Sydney Smith scored a game-best 16 points to pace the Catamounts in the losing effort.

FIRST HALF:
The Catamounts' first nine points of the game came from three, as they took an 11-10 lead with 3:58 remaining in the opening quarter. Hartford picked up the defensive pressure for the remainder of the stanza, holding Vermont scoreless for the final 4:32. During that stretch, Alyssa Reaves knocked down back-to-back mid-range jumpers to put the lead in the hands of the home team at 14-11.

The Hawks lived from the free-throw line in the opening part of the second, scoring seven-straight points from the stripe to increase their advantage to 21-12 with 7:51 to go. Vermont's only point of that stretch also came from the line on a 1-of-2 effort from Wright 28 seconds in. Hartford continued to roll, scoring six-unanswered points, including back-to-back layups from Harrison and sophomore Kelly Douglass, to grab their largest lead of the half (13) with 2:53 left. The squads exchanged scores to end the stanza, and the Hawks took a comfortable 32-21 lead into the intermission.
 
SECOND HALF:
The two sides swapped baskets to the tune of a 36-26 score during the first two and half minutes of the second half before Hartford heated up again. Mayza capped a 9-0 Hartford rally that featured four different scorers with a three-pointer, expanding the advantage to 45-26 at the midway point. But Vermont, which knocked down four triples in the first half, caught fire again from long range. Two three-pointers sparked an 8-0 Catamounts' run that closed the gap to 11 at 45-34 with 2:15 left. Mayza stopped the bleeding with a three, and the Hawks increased the lead to 53-37 with five-straight makes from the free-throw line in the final 23 seconds. Fifteen of the Hawks' 21 third-quarter points came off of Vermont miscues.
 
In the final quarter, the Hawks took their largest lead of the game – a 20-point spread – with 7:09 to go on back-to-back 2-for-2 efforts from the line by sophomore Lindsey Abed and Mayza. Vermont would cut its deficit down to 14 at 62-18 with 4:18 remaining, but wouldn't come any closer despite scoring the final four points of the game.
 
INSIDE THE NUMBERS:

• Harrison shot 5-of-9 from the floor, adding five rebounds, two assists, a pair of steals and one block to a 5-of-6 effort from the charity stripe.
• The Hawks cashed in for 20 points in 28 attempts from the free-throw line (83.3%), including a perfect 6-for-6 performance from Mayza.
• Hartford, which entered the game ranked fifth in the nation in three-point shooting percentage, bucked a trend in Saturday's game, going just 4-for-15 (26.7%) from behind the arc.
• The three-point line benefited the Catamounts, as 10 of their 18 made field goals came from long range. Vermont shot 32.3 percent (10-of-31) from three on the afternoon and went 34.0 percent (18-of-53) from the field.
• Nearly half (15) of Hartford's 32 first-half points came off Vermont's 15 turnovers.
• The Catamounts committed 27 points – tying a season-best defensive effort for Hartford. The Hawks turned those miscues into 34 points on the other end.
• All but four of the Hawks' 18 made field goals were assisted, led by a season-high eight helpers by Mayza.
• Hartford's defense held Vermont to just seven field goals in the first 20 minutes, with four of those makes coming from behind the arc.
• DaCosta, who extended her double-figure scoring streak to 10 games, added a career-high seven rebounds, while Alyssa Reaves, who added eight points in the win, matched her career high in steals with four.

NEWS & NOTES:

• The Hawks defeated the Catamounts for the 11th-straight game, but Vermont still holds a 36-33 advantage in the all-time series.
• With the victory, Hartford improved to 18-14 in league openers, including 14-7 since the inception of the America East Conference in 1996-97.
• The Hawks have won each of their last three conference openers.
• With a 10-4 mark, the 2016-17 team is off to the program's best start since 2009-10. (11-3).

 
UP NEXT:
The first road trip of the America East slate lands Hartford in Baltimore, Md., to face UMBC on Wednesday, Jan. 11. The Hawks and Retrievers are slated for a 7 p.m. tip from RAC Arena.