Cortland, NY — The State University of New York at New Paltz women's basketball team suffered its second-straight loss, falling on the road to SUNY Cortland, 74-56.
 
"I take full responsibility for what we are right now because we have good kids who want to do well, but I have yet to be able to help them do so," said Hawks coach Jamie Seward. "We are just going to have to keep grinding and keep trying to improve, because there are no magical potions that will make it just happen."
 
SUNY New Paltz  (3-4 overall, 1-2 SUNYAC) held an early one-point advantage in a high scoring first quarter, 21-20, and despite shooting just 30.3 percent from the field in the first half kept the one-point lead at halftime.
 
However, the game started getting away from the Hawks in the third quater. 
 
The Red Dragons (2-4 overall, 2-0 SUNYAC) out-scored SUNY New Paltz , 27-16 and went on a 13-2 run until Sandi Harris knocked down a 3 for the Hawks to end the quarter.
 
SUNY New Paltz's shooting woes continued in the fourth quarter, mustering just seven points in the final 10 minutes, which allowed SUNY Cortland to pull away.
 
"We are at a very low point from a confidence stand point," said Seward. "And that is a tricky thing because you can only build confidence from working really hard and seeing that hard work result in some success. However, we aren't seeing a lot of success right now, so our confidence continues to decline."
 
Despite dominating on the offensive glass with 22 offensive boards, the Hawks had one of their worst shooting nights, hitting just 26.5 percent from the field, including 22.9 percent in the second half and netting just eight baskets in the final 20 minutes.
 
Rachel Simon and Marion Dietz led SUNY New Paltz with 12 and 11 points, respectively. Dietz registered a team-high 10 rebounds to notch a double-double, while also adding a team-high four assists, two steals and a block. Simon finished with six rebounds, three steals, two assists and a block, while hitting 4-of-9 from 3-point range.
 
"We did shoot very poorly in the second half, and certainly Cortland had a lot to do with that," Seward said. "With that being said, it also comes back to the confidence factor. We are playing very tentative and not just going out there and playing the game. We're questioning every pass, every shot, every decision we make and that's a recipe for just the type of poor shooting play we displayed tonight."
 
SUNY New Paltz is back home in the Hawk Center Saturday in a rivalry match up against SUNY Oneonta at 1 p.m. For live updates, highlights, photos, videos and more be sure to follow @nphawks on Twitter and @newpaltzhawks on Instagram and Facebook. Tweet #NPHawks