The Hartford men’s basketball team has been staying with the pack this season. Starting with their first conference game against UMBC, the Hawks took home a 66-64 win against the reigning America East Conference champions.

More recently, they took down New Hampshire in West Hartford. It was in this game that senior J.R. Lynch hit his career-high of 29 points to lead his team to a 74-39 win. Offensively the team shined, but it was their defense in this game that gave them the win and kept the Wildcats to a season-low of 39 points.

The defense was led by senior Travis Weatherington who managed to grab a career-high of nine rebounds. Going into this game New Hampshire had only totaled three wins, one being against in-conference UMass Lowell. Head Coach John Gallagher noted that the win came from the active defensive efforts of Jason Dunne and Weatherington.

Fans watching the game weren’t sure that this was going to be an easy victory during the second half since the Wildcats deficit was getting smaller and smaller. Going into halftime, the Hawks held a lead of 44-17. New Hampshire got closer and closer until the Hawks ran away with the game. Lynch knocked in a pair of three-pointers along with two from his teammates.

The defense was hot during the final minutes of the second half. Hartford held UNH to three points during their 20-point run towards the end of the game. In the Reich Family Pavillion, the team led by Head Coach Gallagher sealed the victory to move to a conference record of 3-2.