Saturday, January 28, 2012

UAlbany steals road game at Hartford, 72-60

WEST HARTFORD, Conn. — The University at Albany men’s basketball team was down, but not out.

Late in the second half, the Great Danes trailed by four, but they went a terrific run to close out the game and take home a road victory.

UAlbany finished the game on a 16-0 run, to emerge with a 72-60 victory over Hartford, on Saturday afternoon, at Chase Family Arena.

“This was a huge win for us,” said UAlbany coach Will Brown

The Great Danes (6-3, 14-9) trailed 60-56, with five minutes to play, but that’s when the offense went into high gear, leaving the Hawks (4-5, 4-17) in the dust.  

Jayson Guerrier hit a 3-pointer to pull UAlbany within one and then Logan Aronhalt scored five straight points, to put the Danes up to stay.

“We haven’t won here in a couple years,” Brown said. “It’s a good win for us. Every contributed.”

Chase Arena is the site of this year’s America East Conference postseason tournament and the site where UAlbany lost to Stony Brook in last year’s quarterfinals.

Gerardo Suero didn’t start the game for the Great Danes, due to a thigh bruise, but the nation’s fourth leading scorer still finished with 14 points. 

Aronhalt finished with nine of the Danes’ final 13 points, finishing with a team-high 17 points for the game.

“This was a good win because Logan’s really hurting and Suero was banged up,” Brown said.

Jacob Iati hit back-to-back treys midway through the second half to give UAlbany a 51-44 lead.

“I’m happy for Jacob because nobody works harder,” Brown said.

Iati finished with eight points on 2-for-4 shooting from the field and played some big minutes, with point guard Mike Black in foul trouble. 

“I’m glad he was able to really contribute tonight,” Brown said of Iati. “He did a tremendous job.”

The victory was just the second conference road win of the season for UAlbany.

“It’s hard to win on the road in this league,” said Brown, whose team is 8-0 at home this year.

The Great Danes are now alone in fourth place, just two games out of first, with seven games remaining.

“We just have to be solid and if we’re solid we’ll be able to win games,” Brown said.

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