BALTIMORE, Md. – The Hartford men's basketball team stormed back from a 26-point deficit with 16:17 left in the second half to force overtime, but No. 3 UMBC prevailed in double overtime in a 90-85 decision inside UMBC Event Center in the semifinals of the America East Playoffs.
 
Senior Travis Weatherington led all scorers with 25 points, 15 of which came in the final 11:43 of regulation to help fuel the Hawks' comeback bid. Classmate J.R. Lynch added 22 points for Hartford, which ends its season with an 18-15 record.
 
K.J. Jackson led five Retrievers in double figures, as UMBC (21-12) advances to the championship game to face No. 1 Vermont for the second consecutive season.
 
UMBC 90, HARTFORD 85 (2ot)
 
UMBC opened the game on a tear, going 8-for-11 from the field to jump out to a 19-5 lead with 12:15 to go. The Retrievers continued their charge, pushing ahead by as many as 20 with 3:37 to go before taking a 37-18 advantage into the break.
 
Behind a trio of three-pointers, the Retrievers came out hot again in the second half, scoring 13 of the first 19 points to open up a 26-point lead (50-24) with 15:15 remaining. But Weatherington knocked down a three-pointer on the next possession to ignite a monstrous 30-9 run that narrowed the deficit down to six — the smallest gap since UMBC led 11-5 — at 59-53 with 5:03 to go.
 
Hartford continued to chip away, with a Jason Dunne three-pointer at the 1:48 mark closing the gap to a single point at 63-62. With 16.3 seconds remaining, an old-fashioned three-point play by Lynch gave the Hawks their first lead of the game at 68-67, but a 1-for-2 effort from the line by K.J. Jackson in the final seconds drew the teams even at 68-all to force overtime. 
 
Down by two in the first overtime, Weatherington went 2-for-2 from the line to tie up the game before Lynch sank two with just 15 seconds left. But the Hawks wouldn't hold on to that lead, as Brandon Horvarth drew a foul and made both free throws with eight seconds left. Lynch would get a look at the go-ahead bucket, but his jumper was off the mark to force another five-minute session.

UMBC never trailed in the final overtime, but with the game tied at 85-85, Horvarth made two free throws with 51 seconds left. On the ensuing possession, the Hawks' look at the game-tying shot was blocked, and with Hartford forced to foul, Jackson sealed the win with two more makes from the charity stripe.
 
INSIDE THE BOX AND NOTES

• Hartford's six seniors — George Blaogjevic, John Carroll, Dunne, Lynch, Max Twyman and Weatherington —helped lead the program to its most successful two-year run, as they combined for 37 wins, including a school-record 19 in 2017-18
• The contest marked the first double-overtime playoff game since the Hawks fell to Vermont in the 2012 semifinals.
• UMBC shot 55.6 percent (15-of-27) in the first half, to Hartford's 26.6 percent (6-of-21).
• Each of Hartford's five senior starters score din double figures, with Lynch and Blagojevic adding 22 and 18 points, respectively.
• John Carroll recorded closed out his career with back-to-back double-doubles, scoring 10 points while adding 10 rebounds before fouling out in the final seconds of the first overtime period.
• The overtime defeat marked the first for Hartford since Nov. 27, 2016; the Hawks had gone 7-0 in extra time since then.
• The Hawks swept the regular-season series from the Retrievers, but this marks the second consecutive year they fall to UMBC in the semifinals.