BATON ROUGE, La.-- For the second time in as many NCAA Championship appearances, the Hartford women's basketball team won its first round game. The No. 10 Hawks defeated No. 7 Syracuse, 59-55, at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center on the LSU campus on Saturday, March 22 in front of an announced crowd of 3,658.
Junior MaryLynne Schaefer scored the last eight points for the Hawks, and the final five points of the game for either team. Schaefer scored a game-high 19 points, going 4-for-9 from beyond the arc despite shooting just 1-for-6 from three-point range in the first half.
No shot was bigger than Schaefer's three-pointer with 13 seconds left to give Hartford the 57-55 lead right after Syracuse's Tasha Harris put up a jumper on the other end of the floor to give the Orange the advantage.
"It was a play already drawn up, that we practiced," said Schaefer on the go-ahead three-pointer. "I was supposed to see the post players, but it looked like they were guarded. I didn't think about it and just shot it. It's a good thing it went in."
Hartford scored the first seven points of the game with a Lisa Etienne three-pointer sandwiched between field goals by Danielle Hood and Erica Beverly. Syracuse did not score their first two points of the game until the 17:05 mark on a Chandrea Jones field goal.
Schaefer extended the Hawks lead to 10-2 with her only three-pointer of the first frame at 16:45. Schaefer's next shot at 16 minutes marked the first Hartford miss of the game.
Syracuse made up the differential, and more, with a 10-0 run of their own lasting about five minutes. The Orange run was capped off by a Fantasia Goodwin layup plus a free-throw with the foul. Junior Katie Kelley snapped the run with a jumper at 10:33.
The Hawks converted three of their four foul shots to end the first stanza with a 25-23 advantage. A Jonyce Hollins outside shot from the baseline that banked in just missed the buzzer indicating the end of the first half. Despite the quick start, Hartford only shot 29% from the floor in the half. Syracuse did not fare any better, shooting 27.3% in the first half.
Hartford struggled in the second half and Hood only played eight minutes in the second stanza due to fouling out at 5:33. On Hood's final foul, Syracuse took its first lead since 18:56 of the second when Vionca Murray hit the back end of a two-and-two free-throw line appearance. The Hawks were also in the mist of a four-minute field goal drought, allowing the Orange to make up ground on the scoreboard.
A technical at 3:15 on the Syracuse bench ended up making an impact in the final as Schaefer made both foul shots to give the Hawks a 50-49 advantage.
Syracuse's Goodwin tied the score at 51 with a layup at 2:31, and then pushed the Orange ahead at 1:42 with two free-throws. The Hawks responded with a steal by Etienne setting up Schaefer fast break layup plus the foul, to begin her eight-point run to finish out the game.
Beverly finished with a solid statline of eight rebounds (six offensive), six points, six assists, three blocks and four steals. Etienne also finished in double digits with 10 points.
Erica Morrow was the high scorer for Syracuse with 17 points, while Jones posted 12 points and 12 boards.
In the earlier game, Texas A&M, a two seed, easily handled No. 15 Texas-San Antonio, 91-52. The largest lead of the game for the Aggies was 42 points with 4:01 remaining. Four Aggies finished in double-figures led by Mornike Atunrase with 19. Hartford will play the Aggies in second round action Monday night at 9:30 p.m. EST.