the Informer

When the Hartford Hawks hosted the UMBC Retrievers on Thursday, they had a hard time playing a team that was considered to be in a rebuilding stage. The Hawks struggled with all phases of the game, and desperately struggled on the defensive side of the ball, giving up 78 points to a now, three-win team.

The Hawks started out the game solid, but quickly fell behind after not being able to put the ball in the basket. Eventually the Retrievers had a seven-point lead, early on in the first half, but Joe Zeglinski and the Hawks were desperate to come back, pulling off 9-0 run and giving the Hawks a 15-13 lead. But the lead would not be held for long, as the Hawks started to fall behind rapidly. Facing a five-point deficit, the Hawks once again rebounded and cut the lead to one. Yet, at the end of the half UMBC found themselves up by eight, 33-25.

After the half, it was time for the Hawks to get some scoring going, but the problem was, once they scored, they stopped defending. Shots finally started falling for the Hawks, but they could not stop the Retrievers either, as the lead grew to 10 points with about 10 minutes left in the game. From then on, the Hawks were playing a game of catch-up, trying to match the scorching hot UMBC offense. The Hawks were able to cut the lead down to six, but were not able to match as they had to constantly foul, and the Retrievers made their free throws.

The Hawks were not able to complete the comeback and fell 78-70, as Point Guard Chris De La Rosa and Shooting Guard Chauncey Gilliam led the Retrievers. De La Rosa was the star of the first half for UMBC, scoring 16 of his 22 in the first half, along with having five assists. Gilliam was the one who killed the Hawks in the second half, not letting the Hawks slow him down on the way to 26 points. The Hawks were able to counter, with star-studded guard Joe Zeglinski who led the way with 29 points, six assists and six rebounds. Forward Morgan Sabia also added 15 points and 11 rebounds in the loss.

The Hawks had a rough game and just could not defend when needed. Coach Dan Leibowitz felt the Hawks just did not play well, saying “Chris De La Rosa, and Chauncey Gilliam, we did nothing to stop them. I’m very disappointed, we will practice tomorrow at six in the morning. I just felt that we were lackluster.” Leibowitz continued on to say that “it was a very disappointing performance.”

Next up for the Hawks will be a road game at Maine on Sunday followed by another road trip to Binghamton on Wednesday.