Hartford wins America East opener, tops New Hampshire 61-52

WEST HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Moses Flowers scored four of his 28 points in the final two minutes and Hartford held New Hampshire scoreless over the final two-and-a-half minutes to wrap up a 61-52 victory in the America East Conference opener for both schools Saturday afternoon.

Nick Guadarrama's 3-pointer with 6:27 to play got the Wildcats within three at 50-47, but Flowers stole the ball from Jayden Martinez and scored on a fast break, then followed it with a layup to push the lead to seven with just under five minutes to play.

With Flowers on the bench, Sean Sutherland's jumper with 3:43 again got New Hampshire within three, 54-51. Flowers scored in the paint with 1:20 left to push the lead back to five points and hit two free throws with :36 left to make it seven.

Flowers was 10 of 13 from the field, including 4 of 5 from long range for Hartford (8-8). Malik Ellison grabbed 14 rebounds.

Sutherland scored 17 points to lead New Hampshire (7-7), Guadarrama added 13 points and Chris Lester grabbed 11 boards. Since mid-November New Hampshire has alternated wins and losses, not sustaining back-back losses or earning consecutive wins.