By Jake Nussbaum, Special To The Chronicle
Down one point with 13 seconds left, Hofstra had a chance to put Hartford away and make the Pride’s 23 turnovers seem like background noise; instead, senior guard Nicole Capurso gave the ball back to the Hawks to seal Hofstra’s fate last night.
“We knew they were going to double on Nicole and I told her they would,” said head coach Krista Kilburn-Steveskey. “She just bobbled the horrible.”
Junior forward Shante Evans continued her strong season with a team leading 16 points and seven rebounds, but like the rest of the team struggled with turnovers. Junior guard Candace Bond also had a strong game, hitting four of five field goals and hitting her one three-point attempt, yet neither performance proved strong enough to propel Hofstra to its seventh straight win.
Hofstra managed to jump out to an early 24-8 lead, but the sloppy play was able to allow Hartford to come back into the game.
“We had a pretty big drop off,” said Kilburn-Steveskey. “We just didn’t handle them immediately.”
Junior forward Ruthanne Doherty led Hartford with 17 points and seven rebounds, but also had five turnovers.
Hofstra had its chances in this game as Hartford also struggled from three-point range, shooting 37 percent of their field goals as opposed to Hofstra’s 43 percent.
Hofstra falls to 6-2 on the season, its first loss since the season opener at Gonzaga.