ALBANY, NY – Jaret von Rosenberg hit every shot down the stretch, and Michael Turner stepped in the way of a game tying three, as Hartford’s seniors refused to go quietly into that good night. Turner played gritty, stifling defense, and von Rosenberg scored 21 points, as the seniors put the Hawks on their backs and carried them to a 65-56 victory of Maine in Friday nights “play in” game of the America East tournament.
“Obviously it’s in your mind that if you lose you go home, so you don’t want to lose,” reflected Turner.
The grounds crew at Albany’s SEFCU Arena will need to work into the wee hours of the morning to clean all of von Rosenberg’s sweat and blood from the hardwood. Turner drowned out the entire crowd as he bellowed out defensive assignments on every Maine possession. It didn’t matter that Hartford finished the regular season dead last, or that they entered the game riding a fourteen game losing streak coming into the game; there was no way that Hartford’s senior duo was going to go softly into that good night.
“I was very happy for Mike and Jaret, more than anybody else” said Leibovitz, “I’ve said all year that they deserve a very good ending… and for them to have possibly lost out on that (14 game losing) streak would have been a hard thing to live with.”
Hartford entered Friday’s action with a 6-25 record and what seems a lifetime removed from last season’s magical run to the conference title game. Most teams in Hartford’s shoes would have packed it in long ago, but the word “quit” doesn’t exist in the vocabulary of von Rosenberg, Turner, or the rest of the Hawks,
“I’m very proud, we win a game with all that we’ve been through… these eight-nine games that everyone calls play in games, it’s a lot about desire and a lot about character” said Hartford head coach Dan Leibovitz. “We really tried to show from the first play of the game, as best as we could, that we wanted to be around, we wanted to stay, we wanted to survive, we wanted to advance, and that says a lot about a group that has lost fourteen or fifteen in a row.”
The job that Turner and von Rosenberg have done “lacing them up” up every single game this season goes beyond words, as the seniors have not only continued to show up every game, but they have managed to pump up their teammates throughout the season: No matter how many losses piled up, or how dire the straights, Hartford only pulled together tighter and fought harder.
“Our whole team goes out to play hard” said Turner.
But for much of the season, the Hawks simply didn’t have the horses, as it has seemed like they we’re often playing two against five.
Not Friday not, as Leibovitz got contributions across the board from his gutsy band of brothers: There was the Puerto-Rican missile Andres Torres blowing by defenders, getting into the lane and kicking out to open teammates, as well as hitting his biggest (and perhaps luckiest) shot of the year. And there was freshman Drake U’u muscling his way to the hoop for a big bucket, reserve forward David Bookman scored on a nifty move in the paint and added a big block in the fist half. Anthony Minor energized the Hawks, and the crowd, with a monster two-handed slam in traffic just as the Hawks offense seemed to stall halfway through the second half. Morgan Sabia showed flashes of last years All Rookie form, scoring 13 points and pulling down five rebounds, and no one was bigger than freshman Genesis Maciel, who went 4-4 from the floor and scored eight huge first half points.
“You try to push different buttons and motivate different guys, and I felt like in the end, tonight, for the most part everybody that went in was ready to go,” said Leibovitz.
When Maciel checked into the game for the fist time, Hartford trailed 20-15, but the rookie from Compton (CA) scored three quick buckets in a hurry on a jumper and two nice low post moves, and added another minutes later, and Hartford closed out the half on an 18-8 run.
“Coach told us to be aggressive coming in, so when I was coming in my mind was thinking ‘be aggressive, go in and score,’” said Maciel.
Maciel also changed the game on the defensive end, nullifying Maine big-man Sean McNally, who scored seven points in the games opening minutes but managed only two over the rest of the game.
“He’s(Maciel) is a very intelligent young man and a very intelligent basketball player,” said Leibovitz.
But it was once again Hartford’s seniors who came up huge down the stretch, as after Hartford pushed their lead to double digits, the Black Bears went on a 15-6 run to make it a 54-53 game with 2:33 left. That’s when von Rosenberg dug down deep, as he scored on a beautiful reverse layup, and hit six huge free-throws down the stretch.
And with a three point lead and 1:30 left in the game, Turner dug in and made the stop of the season: With Hartford clinging to a 56-53 lead, Maine got the ball into leading scorer Mark Socoby’s hands on the right wing. Socoby had already beaten Turner in an identical situation earlier in the game, but wit the shot clock running down Turner held his ground, refused to bite on a ball fake, and crowded Socoby into and off-balance shot that fell well short of the hoop, and into the hands of Sabia.
“He had used the same move on me, and actually got me the first time, and I take that personally, I don’t like to give up any points,” said Turner. “He got me with the same move on the first time, and just in my head I figured the pump fake and the crossover is coming for the three, and I just kinda stood there with my hands up,” said Turner.
After Turner’s stand on defense, Torres banked in a deep three-pointer with the shot clock winding down, effectively putting the game out of reach.
The Hawks are now faced with the tall task of facing top-seeded Binghamton in the first game of Saturday’s second session, slated for a 6pm tip-off.
