Hot-Shooting Hartford Bests Men's Basketball

WEST HARTFORD, Conn. – Kaosi Chijioke of the Hartford Hawks men's basketball team drained a game-high 25 points to pace the Hawks, who shot 57.1 percent from the floor, to an 80-56 conference win over the Wentworth Institute of Technology Wednesday night.

With the win, the Hawks push their record to 3-6 and 1-2 in Conference of New England play. The Black & Gold slip to 1-6 and 0-3 in conference action.

HOW IT HAPPENED:

• A Drew Stack three-pointer gave the Hawks an initial lead in the first half before a two from the Leopards cut the deficit to just one. From there, a three by Jaylen Brown kickstarted a 5-0 run to push the score to 8-2 before a three from Nathan Brinkman cut the Leopards' deficit to 8-5. Hartford went on a 10-0 run, featuring two threes, to take an 18-5 advantage.
• The two teams later swapped scores, with a layup by Jack Connell marking a 22-11 score. Four from Chijioke of six-straight helped Hartford to a 28-11 lead before Wentworth responded with a 10-3 run, featuring three points apiece from Russell Dolabany and Connell, to mark a 31-21 score.
• Chijioke and Dolabany traded twos to push the game to 33-23 before Hartford went on a 5-0 run, featuring another three from Brown, to push the lead to 38-23. The Black & Gold answered, scoring ten of the next 12 points with six coming from Connell to mark a 40-33 score at the break.
• The two teams traded scores to open the second half, marking a 42-37 Hartford lead, before the Hawks drained nine-straight to extend their lead to 51-37. Four-straight points by the Leopards was answered by a Troy Santos three, marking a 54-41 score, before another Santos three helped a 7-1 run in pushing the lead to 61-42.
• A three by Mike Yentin was answered with a three by Chijioke, marking a 64-45 game, before the two teams swapped scores to a 70-50 score. A three by Connell cut the deficit before being matched with a three by Stack, marking a 73-53 score. Five points by Santos helped Hartford extend their lead later to 80-53.
• Wentworth finished the game with three free throw makes, marking an 80-56 final score. Chijioke led all scorers with 25 points on 10-16 FG, followed by Connell who led the Leopards with 17 and additionally dished out five assists. Four other Hawks grabbed double-figure point totals, while Dolabany followed Connell with 11 of his own.
• The Leopards owned a 34-29 rebound advantage and had 13 points off the bench to the Hawks' nine.

SERIES NOTES:

• Tonight marked the third all-time meeting between the two teams.

NEXT UP:

• The Leopards travel to MIT for a non-conference tilt Saturday.

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