Hooley's 27 Points and 13 Rebounds Highlight 86-60 Men's Basketball Win at Hartford
BOX SCORE
WEST HARTFORD, CONN.- Wrapping up the first eight games of the league schedule, University at Albany men's basketball (17-6, 6-2 AE) fired on all cylinders to down Hartford (7-16, 2-6 AE) on Saturday night. Peter Hooley's second career double-double highlighted a 49-rebound performance at Chase Family Arena.
“I'm proud of my team,” said head coach Will Brown. “Hartford is a difficult team to guard because they spread you out and shoot from so many spots on the floor. We played great team defense and never allowed them to get in a rhythm. To be a good team in this league, we have to win games on the road.”
Three-point shooting was the name of the game in the first half. The teams combined to take six treys in the first three minutes of the game, accounting for more than half of all the field goals attempted.
After a sporadic start offensively, Hartford kept the game close by netting 10 points off of six UAlbany turnovers. But the narrow margin was short-lived, as an 11-2 run by the Great Danes gave them a 21-14 edge with 9:31 on the clock in the first half.
Despite a zone defense from the Hawks, the Purple & Gold stepped to the three-point arc to take a double-digit lead. Ray Sanders and Evan Singletary knocked down from long range, and Hartford's John Gallagher finally called timeout as a Peter Hooley three opened up a 14-point margin with under five minutes to go.
Greig Stire put back an offensive board to cap a 13-3 run for Will Brown's squad, He netted four-straight points to keep UAlbany's lead in double digits late in the opening stanza.
The Hawks made one final push in the first half with back-to-back threes, sending UAlbany into the locker room with a 38-28 lead.
Hooley finished the opening period with 12 points. The Purple & Gold out-rebounded Hartford 22-9, shot 13-25 (.520) from the field and 5-11 (.455) from three-point land. Hartford's leading scorer Pancake Thomas (20.1 PPG America East) was held to just six points.
The hot shooting for UAlbany continued into the second half, as Brown & co., went on an 8-2 run. Hartford responded with a zone press, but the Hawks whittled the lead to 12 before another 8-0 Purple & Gold spurt. Ennema and Joe Cremo nailed back-to-back threes to extend the advantage to 20 points, 54-34 with 13:10 to go.
Despite a four-minute field goal drought mid-way through the second, a 17-2 run on eight points from Hooley put the game out of reach for Hartford. UAlbany went up 71-43 with six minutes remaining.
Hooley put work in offensively and defensively down the stretch, finishing with 27 points and 13 rebounds for his second career double-double. The senior went for 18 and 12 against the Hawks at Chase Family Arena on Jan. 19, 2013 in his redshirt freshman season. Hooley's 27-point effort is his fourth of 20 points or more this season, and 13 boards mark a new career high.
After a season-low rebounding performance against UMass Lowell on Wednesday, the Great Danes bounced back for a season-best 49 rebounds. Brown & co., committed just three turnovers in the second half, and held Hartford to 29.6% (8-27) from three-point range. The league's second-leading scorer in Pancake Thomas recorded just eight points.
Through the first half of the conference slate, UAlbany holds steady in the No. 2 spot in the America East standings at 6-2.
Next up, UAlbany men's basketball visits UMBC (5-18, 1-7 AE) on Wednesday, Feb. 3 for a 7:00 p.m., tip.
