BALTIMORE-- UMBC men's basketball got their second-half deficit to within five late, but costly turnovers and Hartford free throws down the stretch gave them a 70-63 win on Saturday. Senior Brandon Horvath (West River, Md./Southern) led all scorers with 18 points adding 11 rebounds. 

UMBC falls to 9-3, 5-2 AE while the Hawks improve to 9-5, 6-3 AE). 

Horvath led the way with 18 points and 11 rebounds. R.J. Eytle-Rock (London, England) added 13 points with transfer Jacob Boonyasith (Grand Rapids, Mich.) adding 12 points. Daniel Akin (London, England) chipped in 10 rebounds. 

Austin Williams and Traci Carter led the Hawks with 16 points each with Williams adding 13 rebounds. Miroslav Stafl added 14 points for the Hawks. 

Both teams tried to gain an edge early on with both teams exchanging the lead for most of the first half. The Retrievers took their largest lead of the day after back-to-back triples from Jacob Boonyasith with five minutes remaining. Hartford would go on an 8-0 run to take a four-point lead late, and leading 31-30 at the half. 

Horvath led the way for the Retrievers with seven points and six rebounds with Boonyasith adding a first-half best nine points. UMBC got 16 points in the paint over the first 20 minutes, but the Hawks shot 50 percent from the floor to take the halftime lead. 

Hartford came out of the gates in the second half, increasing their lead to seven at the first media timeout. That lead would get to as many as 13 with 11 minutes to go before the Retrievers began their comeback. 

Horvath cut the deficit to single digits with a big and one with under eight minutes to go. Trailing by nine with a minute to go, Darnell Rogers (Baltimore, Md./Indian Land (SC)/New Mexico JC)  and Keondre Kennedy (Atlanta, Ga.) hit a pair of free throws to get it to five with 46 seconds to go. However, the Hawks went 4-4 from the line down the stretch, coupled with a pair of Retriever turnovers gave Hartford a 70-63 win on Saturday. 

There were 10 lead changes in the contest, and the Hawks benefitted from 12 second-chance points on eight offensive rebounds. UMBC ended up with 30 points in the paint and outscored the Hawks 25-9 off the bench. 

UMBC and Hartford conclude their series tomorrow, Sunday, Jan. 17 at 1 p.m. on ESPN 3.