BOX SCORE
GAME REPLAY
Burlington, VT – The University of Hartford women's basketball team squeezed out a defensive battle 38-36 to extend its win streak to 10-straight games and improve to 8-0 in America East Conference action. The Hawks were led by Diana Delva who scored the game-winning bucket on a put back with 2.2 seconds remaining.
Delva was the only player in the game to score in double figures, with 16 of her 20 points coming in the second half. She finished the game shooting 8-of-12 from the field, and was a perfect 4-of-4 at the free throw line. She also grabbed 12 rebounds and blocked five shots in 32 minutes.
Freshman Ruthanne Doherty led all players in the game with 13 rebounds, her second career game with double digit boards. Doherty's 13 boards along with Delva's 12 led the Hawks to a 43-36 advantage in rebounding.
As a team, Hartford (17-3 overall) shot 28.8 percent from the field (15-of-52), including two three points, while finishing a perfect 6-of-6 at the line. The Hawks defense held the Catamounts (16-5 overall, 6-2 AE) to 13 baskets in 52 attempts (25.0 percent), while forcing 12 Catamount turnovers.
In a game that saw 11 ties and nine lead changes, the Hawks took the early advantage scoring seven-straight points after allowing the Catamounts to score the first bucket of the game. Five of the Hawks seven points in that stretch came from freshman Alex Hall who came off the bench to hit a jumper and a three pointer in less than a minute.
The Catamounts responded with an 8-0 run of their own for the second lead change of the game, taking a 10-7 lead with 7:04 to play in the first half. The lead changed twice more before the break, and was tied once at 14. Following Vermont's 10-7 lead the Hawks used back-to-back baskets and a free throw to take a 12-10 lead before Vermont used the same to take a 14-12 lead, which they would keep until the break.
After the Hawks tied the score at 14 on a pair of free throws from freshman Nikkia Smith with 25 seconds remaining before the break, Vermont's May Kotsopoulos hit a jump shot with eight seconds on the clock to take the two-point advantage into the locker room at the break.
Coming out of the break, the teams traded leads three times in the first seven minutes, with Delva providing the first lead change for Hartford on back-to-back baskets, a jumper and a layup, within 36 seconds of each other.
Both teams were held scoreless for the next two minutes with the Catamounts tying the score almost three minutes later and taking a 24-22 lead with just under 13 minutes remaining in the game. The lead came on a Courtnay Pilypaitis layup off a Hawks turnover. Coming out of the under 12 media timeout, the Catamounts took their largest lead of the game, 27-22, on three free throws, two from Tonya Young and one from Kotsopoulos.
The Hawks responded with five-straight to tie the game for the eighth time with 9:50 to play. All five points in the run came from Delva on back-to-back layups, the second becoming a three point play as she was fouled on the initial shot.
Vermont kept the lead momentarily on a layup from Sofia Iwobi, before Ilicia Mathis connected on the second three pointer of the game for Hartford, which led to a 30-29 lead with 8:27 to play. The Catamounts responded with a tip away steal for Kotsopoulos that led to a Pilypaitis layup and free throw to retake the lead 32-30.
Hartford then took a lead it wouldn't relinquish on back-to-back baskets from Mary Silvia and Delva. Siliva's bucket, which tied the game at 32, came on a jump shot just inside the three point line with 6:12 to play. The Hawks wouldn't take the lead until the 2:29 mark on Delva's layup. Delva did her job defensively on the other end of the floor just prior to the layup when she sent a Kotsopoulos three point attempt about 10 rows into the crowd for her fifth block of the game.
Following Delva's block, the Hawks missed a three point attempt on their end of the floor before Kotsopoulos came up short on her second-straight three point attempt, this time rattling around, up and then out to the waiting hands of Doherty.
Following Delva's go ahead layup, the Catamounts would score next tying the game on a layup from Young. Hartford answered with a driving layup from Mathis, which came with 43 seconds remaining.
Vermont's next offensive set led to a missed jumper from Iwobi, which Lauren Buschmann secured the rebound for and then was fouled, calmly sinking two free throws to tie the game at 36 with 16 second remaining.
Mathis came down the floor with the ball off the inbounds and attempted the same play she scored on just seconds earlier, this time coming up short, but Delva swallowed up the rebound and forced up a second attempt that fell through the hoop with 2.2 seconds remaining.
After the Catamounts called a timeout with 1.5 seconds remaining, the inbounds attempt was tipped by Delva and Mathis before Kotsopoulos secured the ball, posted up but sent her shot strong into the bottom of the hoop as the buzzer sounded.
Hartford will return to action on Saturday when they travel to Stony Brook for the second straight road game. The Hawks and Seawolves will tip off the second trip through the conference schedule for both teams at 4:00 p.m.
