Tuesday afternoon, down in Bubbleville, the Hartford Men’s basketball team took on the daunting number 12 in the country Villanova Wildcats. The hawks knew that they would have an uphill battle coming into this one as the Wildcats are one of the best teams in the country.

The Hartford Hawks were coming off a 69-57 loss to UConn which was never really close. After the defeat, the team had to turn around and face a 2-1 Villanova team that was coming into the game with something to prove as they were coming off an 81-73 loss to Virginia Tech. The Hawks got out to a quick 36-17 deficit as Nova was seemingly automatic from three-point range and had great production from their bench as they scored 13 points in the first 12 minutes.

It was not long before the game quickly got out of hand and the deficit became too much for the Hawks to overcome. Hartford started slow, as they were 0-6 from 3-PT to start the game while Villanova started the game 8-16 from behind the arc. The Hawks went into halftime trailing 43-24 with Traci Carter as the leading scorer for the Hawks with 8 points and 3 rebounds.

Hawks showed that they are a team that does not quit as they started the second half on a 6-0 run although the game began to get out of hand as Villanova went on a 17-4 run to combat Hartford’s 6-point run. Villanova had their largest lead of 36 as the score was 83-47. The final score was 87-53 and was clearly not the outcome Hartford had hoped for however, the Hawks played a team that could potentially be National Champions so this was not a loss that they can dwell on too much.

They have now started the season 0-2 but Hawk fans should not look at the start of the season with too much concern. The Hawks played two very good teams to start the season and may not play that good of teams unless they make the tournament. This is still a team that can be contenders in the American East they just need to look past this game and keep moving forward. Their next game is tomorrow against Fairfield.