Box Score Box Score

NEW PALTZ, N.Y. – Junior guard Zoe Cohen (Brooklyn, N.Y.) came within two points of her career-high with 13 coming off the bench, leading the State University of New York at New Paltz women's basketball team (5-5, 3-0 SUNYAC) past Buffalo State (5-4, 0-3 SUNYAC) in a State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) game Friday evening in the Hawk Center.

The victory puts the Hawks back at the .500 mark for the first time since they started the season out 1-1 before losing two straight to nationally-ranked opponents.

Cohen's 13 points led all scorers, and she did so off 4-of-9 shooting from the floor and 4-of-6 shooting from the charity stripe. Junior forward Shanay Bradley (Bronx, N.Y.) enjoyed her third double-double of the season, pulling in 12 boards and scoring 11 points. Junior guard Caitlin Irwin (Brooklyn, N.Y.) joined Cohen and Bradley in double figures with 12 points and also pitched in defensively with four steals. Coming off the bench, sophomore guard Kahsyrah Bryant (North Babylon, N.Y.) dished out a team-high three assists.

For Buffalo State, Barb Kiliszek led the way on both ends of the floor, notching 10 points off two field goals and 6-of-6 shooting from the line while contributing two steals. Kiliszek's line also included four rebounds and a game-high five assists. Devine Sebuharara reeled in the team-high in boards with eight, while Dee Layne had a well-rounded performance with eight points and four steals.

New Paltz trailed just once the entire game, which came with 13:48 to go in the first half when Emily Williams' made free-throw shot put the Bengals up 5-4. The Hawks, however, scored eight unanswered, and a made foul shot by Bryant pushed the score to 13-5 in favor of the home team with 11:30 remaining in the period. New Paltz twice extended the advantage to 14 points, the last of which came when sophomore guard Maliqua Fisher (North Babylon, N.Y.) drained a layup with just fewer than two minutes left in the stanza.

The blue and orange took a 28-15 lead into halftime and widened the gap with an 8-2 run to start the second half. The Bengals hung tough through the middle portion of the frame, but New Paltz ultimately pulled well ahead down the stretch and mounted its largest lead of the game with 50 seconds to go, pushing the score out to 67-40, which would stand as the final tally, as Kala Crawford and Alicia Bowman missed back-to-back jumpers before Bryant brought in Bowman's miss and drained the clock until time expired.

The Hawks held the Bengals to 25 percent shooting from the floor (14-of-56) and also forced them into an abysmal performance from distance (9.1 percent off 1-of-11 shooting). New Paltz shot well from long range, going 5-for-15 (33.3 percent).

Another SUNYAC game awaits the Hawks tomorrow, as they host SUNY Fredonia at 2 p.m. in the Hawk Center and look to remain undefeated in league play.