Box Score New Paltz, NY – It was a close first-half of play between the State University of New York at New Paltz men's basketball team and visiting SUNY Cortland Saturday. But what was just a three-point lead at the half turned into a 17-point advantage midway through the following 20 minutes, and the Red Dragons eventually came away with an 88-71 win.

"With a great team like that you kind of have to pick your poison and pick a game plan," said Hawks coach Keith Kenney. "We decided we wanted to take their guards out of the game from the 3-point line and not focus on [forward] [Zach] Lydon, because they're the best 3-point shooting team in the league. We did, but you do need to tip your cap, because they got it to Lydon and they scored. That's the game plan that we wanted to execute and we took a chance. With such a good team, you can't guard everybody and you can't stop everybody. But obviously, he had a great game and that is what hurt us."

SUNY New Paltz matched SUNY Cortland offensively in the first half, with each team shooting north of 45 percent from the floor. But, the difference for the Hawks was their work on the offensive glass.

Down by as many as eight in the first half,SUNY New Paltz crept back in after getting timely baskets from Tristan Wissemann and Nick Paquette, and big rebounds by Matthew English.

The Hawks never led in the game, but got within one early, and three several times down the stretch, including to end the half after Wissemann added one more basket off a feed in transition by Cory Garcia to knock the Red Dragons advantage down, 41-38 at the break.

However, in the second half with the Hawks focusing in on SUNY Cortland's shooters, the Red Dragons started taking advantage inside with 6-foot-9, 220-pound junior Lydon, who finished with 33 points on 15-for-20 shooting from the field, including a pair of made 3-pointers. And although SUNY Cortland shot just 27 percent from 3 as a team in the game, the play of Lydon carried the momentum and quickly built on a 14-4 run midway through the half to propel the win.

"They shot poorly from the 3-point line, which is tough to do against that team. But they worked it inside to Lydon and he got 15-footers and he got layups, and that to me was the difference in the game," Kenney said. "But the first half we were 6-of-10 from 3, and in the second half we were 2-of-10, so you make a few more of those than it is a four or five point game at the end and not a 12-point game down the stretch. We're a 3-point shooting team and we didn't shoot well in the second half. It is make or miss sometimes."

 Wissemann finished with a team-high 23 points and added four rebounds, three assists and a steal. Paquette followed with 15 points, six rebounds and two steals, while Dylan Balducci chipped in with 14 points, two rebound and two assists off the bench.

The loss drops SUNY New Paltz to 4-9 on the year and 1-5 in SUNYAC play, while the Red Dragons stay undefeated in conference (6-0) and boost their overall record to 11-2.
The Hawks will look to bounce back in their next game Jan. 13, when they hit the road to take on SUNY Oneonta for a 3 p.m. game. For live updates, recaps, photos, video and more, be sure to follow @nphawks on Twitter and @newpaltzhawks on Instagram and Facebook.