Box Score Box Score
NEW PALTZ, N.Y. – Montclair State University (4-5) produced the game's leading scorer as well as the game's leading rebounder, but the visiting Red Hawks were plagued by turnovers, as the State University of New York at New Paltz women's basketball team (4-5) halted a two-game losing streak with a 63-50 non-conference victory over Montclair State Monday evening at the Hawk Center.
Montclair State's Jaime Ericson scored a game-high 17 points off 6-of-16 shooting from the field and 5-of-10 shooting from the line, while the Red Hawks had two players reach double-figure totals in rebounds. Kisandra Ayanbeku and Ericson patrolled the paint with 13 and 11 boards, respectively. Colleen Kelly distributed the ball well, coughing the ball up just once while supplying six assists.
Both sophomore guard
Maliqua Fisher (North Babylon, N.Y.) and junior forward
Shanay Bradley (Bronx, N.Y.) paced the Hawk attack. Fisher went 7-of-9 from the floor and added two free throws for a team-high 16 points on the evening, while Bradley shot a perfect 6-of-6 from the field and tacked on two free throws to total 14 points. Bradley's line also included team-best figures in rebounds (9) and blocks (4) as well as two steals. Junior point guard
Kaitlin Clifford (Staten Island, N.Y.) dished out four assists running the point for New Paltz, while sophomore forward
Alex McCullough (Delmar, N.Y.) had a solid night with seven points and eight rebounds.
New Paltz excelled in spite of a poor performance from the line. The Hawks' 44.1 percent (26-of-59) clip from the field covered up a 34.6 percent (9-of-26) outing from the charity stripe. Montclair State shot well from long range, going 8-of-26 (30.8 percent), and knocked down its free throws by shooting 14-of-20 (70 percent) at the line. The Red Hawks, however, struggled to convert on two-point opportunities, shooting just 24.1 percent (14-of-58) from the field on the contest.
Montclair State scored the first points of the evening off of an Ayanbeku layup in the opening seconds. After New Paltz scored four unanswered, Ericson drilled a three to put the Red Hawks up 5-4. The host Hawks, however, countered and kept even with the visitors for most of the first stanza before breaking open a seven-point halftime lead at 28-21 when Fisher sank a layup with three seconds to go in the first period.
Coming out of the gates in the second stanza, New Paltz did not let up, as the blue and orange went on a 9-5 run in the first 4:08 of the new frame. Ericson whittled the cushion down to six with 13:40 left in regulation, but a 10-0 tear over the next four minutes ultimately gave the Hawks all they needed to pull out the win. New Paltz only led by less than 10 once the rest of the way.
The Hawks are now finished for the semester and set their sights on league play, which resumes on Friday, Jan. 7, when they host Buffalo State at 6 p.m.
