The Hartford men’s basketball team was unable to overcome a 16-point deficit on Saturday, as it fell to Army, 86-79, in its final game of the Duke Veterans Day Weekend Showcase. Senior Austin Williams led five Hawks in double figures with a season-high 18 points. The Hawks fall to 0-3 while the Black Knights, who received a career-best 29-point outing from Jalen Rucker, improve to 2-1.
Army, which led wire-to-wire, used a 13-1 run capped by back-to-back Rucker three-pointers to open up a 15-point lead at 26-11 with 9:16 to go in the opening half. The Hawks clawed back into the game, though, as consecutive threes from graduate student Hunter Marks and senior D.J. Mitchell brought the deficit down to five. But Army held off Hartford to take a 41-33 lead into the break.
Rucker, who made four first-half threes, remained hot in the second half. Delivering two more triples within the first 65 seconds of the stanza, he helped the Black Knights roll to a 16-point lead at 51-35 with 18:33 to go. The Hawks refused to go down easy, as they chiseled the deficit down to four (68-64) with 6:05 left on an 8-0 run.
Hartford would not come any closer, though, despite getting to the free-throw line early and often in the second half. Capitalizing on just 7-of-12 attempts from the stripe over the final six minutes, the Hawks pulled within six on a late Mitchell three with 14.6 seconds left, but after Army came up empty from the free-throw line in two attempts, Rucker made 1-of-2 with 6.2 seconds to go to seal the game.
The Hawks make their long-awaited home debut on Thursday when they host former conference mate Boston University. Prior to the 7 p.m. tip, Hartford will raise its first-ever America East Championship banner. The game will also be white-out-themed, so make sure you wear white. Be sure to get your tickets online or ahead of time. This game is going to be crazy.