Seniors (from left to right) Daphne Elliot, Alex Hall, Nikkia Smith and Ruthanne Doherty enjoy their win as the America East tournament approaches. Brian Izzo | The Informer

On Saturday afternoon, the Hartford Hawks women’s basketball team faced off against the Vermont Catamounts.

On the Hawks final home game of the season, it was Senior Day. This gave Hartford a little bit of extra motivation to come out on top.

On this day the Hawks didn’t let their seniors down. They escaped with a 59-33 victory over the Catamounts.

After a horrendous first half in which both teams failed to get any offense going, the offense of Hartford took flight.

At the end of the first 20 minutes of play, Vermont was clinging to a 17-14 lead. That three point margin for the Catamounts would prove the be their largest lead of the game.

With 18:42 remaining in the game, Daphne Elliot stole the ball and got an easy layup to give the Hawks and 18-17 lead.

The bucket proved to be a turning point in the game and to go along with that, a very important score for Elliot.

With the one point lead, Hartford had the lead for the first time in the game since the 15:45 mark in the first half. Having the lead seemed to provide the Hawks with some offensive spark.

They lost the lead with 16:25 remaining in the game, but that would be the last time Hartford would be looking up at Vermont.

Twenty seconds after relinquishing the lead, a foul shot by Amber Bepko tied the game at 20. Almost as soon as the Hawks tied the game up, they got the lead back.

Thirty-one seconds after evening the game, Bepko drained a three pointer to give Hartford a 23-20 lead. That lead would not be given up for the remainder of the game.

Despite playing such a poor second half, the Hawks got their acts together in the second half.

After shooting a poor 14.7 percent in the first half, Hartford answered with a scorching 50 percent in the second half.

Part of the big turnaround was poor offensive play for Vermont. The Hawks forced the Catamounts into 19 second half turnovers. Along with forcing the turnovers, Hartford capitalized as they scored 19 points off the second half turnovers.

With her basket with 18:42 left in the game, Elliot went over the 1,000 point mark for her career. She became the 14 player in school history to reach this illustrious milestone.

She was the first player to reach this milestone since teammate Ruthanne Doherty reached it on Feb. 20.

On Senior Day, Elliot, Doherty, Nikkia Smith, and Alex Hall all played their final games at the Chase Family Arena.

Lucky for them, they were sent off with a bang. “It’s a special day, it’s an emotional day, and every coach wants their seniors to play well and make sure that their last time they play at home was a good one”, said Hartford head coach Jennifer Rizzotti following Saturday’s win.

“I knew I was going to get it today,” said Elliot on her 1,000 career point, “she wanted to do it on Senior Night,” added Rizzotti.

“I tried to hold it in as much as I can, its definitely an emotional day and you never know how its going to hit you until its actually you out there, it was definitely emotional but it it felt great and felt even better to get the win today”, said Smith on Senior Day.

Going back a few weeks, the Hawks were finishing out their conference play.

In a game on February 20, they were defeated by the New Hampshire Wildcats 50-49. The game wasn’t all bad news however, Doherty went over 1,000 points in her career in the loss.

Hall had a game high 15 points in the loss.

Following the loss to the Wildcats, the Hawks had one final road game, a matchup with the UMBC Retrievers.

In the final road game of the regular season, Hartford took care of business.

They defeated UMBC 69-62. Smith and Shanise Bultron each scored a team high 12 points for the Hawks.

With the regular season coming to a close, Hartford now has to get ready for the America East Conference Tournament. They will enter the tournament as the number two seed. They have not been lower than the four seed since the 2002-2003 season.

The reward for locking up the number two seed?

A matchup with the Binghamton Bearcats, who are 1-1 against the Hawks this season.

On Jan. 2, the Bearcats upended Hartford 46-44 in the first game of conference play. But, a month later the Hawks got their revenge, defeating Binghamton 65-50 at the Chase Family Arena on Feb. 6.

With a close game on the road and a dominant game at home, Hartford has a good shot at advancing in the conference tournament.

“I feel like we’re understanding how we can play at a faster pace and will benefit us with our depth towards the end of the game and it should benefit us in the tournament,” said Rizzotti on where her team is at as they enter the postseason.