THE BASICS:
 
RESULT: New Hampshire 62, Hartford 57
RECORDS: Hartford (16-11, 7-7 AE); UNH (23-4, 13-1 AE)
LOCATION: Chase Arena at Reich Family Pavilion (West Hartford, Conn.)

THE LEAD:

The University of Hartford women's basketball team made a late fourth-quarter charge, but was held off by the University of New Hampshire as the Wildcats topped the Hawks, 62-57, at Reich Family Pavilion on Saturday. Junior Darby Lee led all scorers with 21 points, adding five rebounds and a career-high five steals for the Hawks.

Trailing by as many as 13 - including a 56-43 spread with 6:16 left to play - the Hawks mounted a comeback with a late, 10-2 run to close the gap to four with 2:57 to go. But the Wildcats, who placed three players in double figures, held off the late charge, holding Hartford without a field goal in its next four attempts. Carlie Pogue scored 18 points for the Wildcats while Kristen Anderson and Kat Fogarty finished with 12 apiece.

FIRST HALF:
Anderson's first three-pointer of the game put the Wildcats on top, 3-2, in the first minute, but sophomore Lindsey Abed went on a 4-0 personal run with a pair of jumpers to put the Hawks in front, 6-3, with 7:29 to go in the opening quarter. A Pogue layup stopped the spurt to pull the Wildcats within one before Hartford took control for the next three minutes. Using a 6-0 run capped by a Deanna Mayza jumper, Hartford pulled ahead by a 12-5 count with 4:44 left. A pair of Pogue layups followed by a Peyton Booth three tied the game at 12-all, but Janelle Harrison's layup with 22 seconds left gave the Hawks a 14-12 edge at the end of the quarter.

The Hawks held on to their lead until the 4:48 mark of the second quarter, when Fogarty put UNH on top, 21-20, with her second layup within a 40-second stretch. Those layups sparked a 14-0 run that saw the Wildcats push ahead, 31-20, with 1:15 left. Hartford managed to close the gap to single digits before the end of the break, as Lee hit a jumper with 29 seconds left before completing an old-fashioned three-point play to provide the halftime score of 31-25.
 
SECOND HALF:
UNH scored the first four points of the second half to push its lead back into double digits at 35-25. But the Hawks responded, slashing their deficit in half at 37-32 with a Lee jumper followed by a Mayza three-pointer at the 5:42 mark. The Wildcats regained their double-digit edge before the end of the third, though, rattling off a 13-3 run to go up, 48-35, with 45 seconds left. The two squads exchanged two points apiece to make it a 50-37 UNH advantage at the end of the quarter.

With 6:16 remaining in the contest, the Wildcats held a 13-point advantage, 56-43, behind a pair of Fogarty free throws. But the Hawks mounted a big comeback that started with a long two from Harrison 19 seconds later. That jumper sparked an 11-2 run Hawks' that closed the gap to four points (58-54) with 2:29 to go. Abed contributed five-straight points to that run, which was capped by another Harrison jumper. That would be the closest Hartford would come, though, as it misfired on four of its final five attempts from the field during the final stretch.
 
INSIDE THE NUMBERS:

• Lee shot 7-of-15 from the field and 7-of-9 from the free-throw line to finish with 20-or-more points for the second time this season, and the third time in her career.
• Abed added 11 points and a game-best six assists, matching a career high in the category. She has netted double figures in seven of her last eight outings, including three-straight.
• UNH's defense held the Hawks to just two makes from long range as Hartford shot 16.7 percent from behind the arc.
• Led by four triples from Anderson, the Wildcats shot 6-of-15 from three-point territory, good for .400.
• Alyssa Reaves, who led the Hawks on the boards with eight, added seven points to eclipse the 500-point mark on her career.

NEWS & NOTES:

• UNH extends its winning streak to Hartford to three games. The first-place Wildcats have been on a roll this season, winning each of their last four and 17 of their last 18.
• With the triumph, UNH improves its advantage in the all-time series to 35-33.

 
UP NEXT:
The Hawks head to Vestal, N.Y., for their final road game of the regular-season on Thursday, Feb. 23. Hartford and Binghamton are slated for a 7 p.m. tip from the Events Center. The contest will be broadcast live on ESPN3.