Rochester, NY --- Ella Marchesani (Saddle Brook, NJ) paced three Hartford players in double figures in scoring as the Hawks never trailed in defeating WPI 52-44 Sunday afternoon in the opening round of the Sandy DeWolf Women's Basketball Tournament hosted by Nazareth. 
 
The Engineers will play Elms at 1pm in the consolation contest while Hartford will face the host Golden Flyers in the championship game at 3pm.  Earlier Sunday, Nazareth bested the Blazers 95-59.

Hartford scored the first five points of the game and led 15-8 after the first quarter, shooting a game-best 45.5% (5-of-11) over the opening 10 minutes while holding WPI to just 20% (3-of-15) in the opening stanza.  The Crimson and Gray got to within two points on occasions in both the second and third quarters but could never quite overtake the Hawks.  A Leila Nielsen (New York, NY) 3-pointer got WPI to within five points at 49-44 with 20 seconds remaining ,but Hartford's Emma O'Hare (Drexel Hill, PA) canned 3-of-4 free throws down the stretch to keep the Engineers at bay.
 
Nielsen and Alice Kelly (Wethersfield, CT) topped WPI in scoring with nine points each.  Nielsen had a career day as she entered the game with just six points but delivered a trio of 3-pointers while Kelly added five rebound and a pair of assists.  Emmy Allyn (Rutland, MA) contributed six points, Caitlyn Dasaro (Fairfield, VT) grabbed a team-high six boards and Shannon Reno (Millbury, MA) joined Kelly and Dasaro with two assists and added a pair of steals.
 
Marchesani came of the bench for the Hawks and posted a game-best 18, including three 3-pointers to go along with five rebounds and a pair of steals.  She was joined in double figures by O'Hare and Lauren Sabia (Simsbury, CY), who netted 14 and 11 respectively while Ava Naszimento (Secaucus, NJ) and Kendall Rieman (Chicago, IL) both grabbed seven rebounds.

Both teams shined on the defensive end as the Hawks held WPI to 26.7% shooting from the floor while the Engineers limited Harford to 31.9% field goal shooting.   Hartford however had a huge advantage in fast break points (23 to 1) and was able to parlay 17 WPI turnovers into 15 points while the Crimson and Gray was only able to convert 24 Hawk miscues into just seven points.