Men’s basketball comes away with a win against UMASS

The University of Hartford’s men’s basketball team took on the UMass Lowell River Hawks on the road Saturday, Feb. 23.  Getting off to a quick start, Hartford opened with a 7-0 run.  The first few minutes were all Hartford as the Hawks led by as much as 11 points before UMass struck back with a 5-0 run of their own with 8:04 in the first half still to be played.  Continuing the streaky nature of this contest, Hartford scored the next eight points pushing their lead up to 14 points.  After this, play leveled out as UMass accounted for 16 of the final 24 points, shaving Hartford’s lead down to 43-39 going into halftime.

Despite UMass inching closer, Hartford maintained at least a one-point advantage until Shawn Jones of the River Hawks tied things up at 51 with 9:14 left.  After trading threes, Hartford regained their footing in this one, scoring nine unanswered to bring it to 63-54 with a little over five minutes remaining.  The River Hawks gave it one last shot to comeback in this one slashing the deficit down to a single point thanks to an 8-1 run, but Hartford sealed the game on free throws going 4-4 in the final minute.  The Hartford Hawks took this one with a final score of 75-73.

Senior Travis Weatherington paced the Hawks in this one with 18 points.  Alongside him were four other Hartford seniors scoring double digits. John Carroll dropped 15, J. R. Lynch and Jason Dunne scored 12, and George Blagojevic recorded a double-double with 10 points and 11 rebounds.

With this victory, Hartford men’s basketball improves to 8-5 in America East play, and 15-13 on the year.  The Hawks will play their final regular season road game Wednesday, Feb. 27, at Binghamton.