Box Score New Paltz, NY — In the matter of about five minutes, the game shifted away from the State University of New York at New Paltz men's basketball team Friday.
 
After an exciting first half, the Hawks' Nick Paquette knocked down a booming shot beyond the perimeter to bring his team's lead to four early in the second half. But following an immediate timeout from visiting Oswego State (7-5 overall, 4-1 SUNYAC), the Lakers responded with a 13-0 run in the following minutes to pull away for what ended as a lopsided, 84-69 victory.
 
"It was definitely a disappointing half," said SUNY New Paltz coach Keith Kenney. "Offensively and defensively, we just — usually sometimes you struggle offensively, but you can defend better and it just seemed like the wheels fell off and we didn't do either well for the second half. For the next time we just got to do the things that we didn't do today."
 
At tip-off it looked as though the game was going to go down to the wire, as both team's matching each other offensively going bucket-for-bucket.
 
The Hawks (4-8 overall, 1-4 SUNYAC) and Lakers each shot more than 50 percent from the field in the first half, including nearly 60 percent from behind the arc.
 
Dylan Balducci carried SUNY New Paltz in the first 20 minutes, putting on a show in the Hawk Center. The Massapequa, NY native was unstoppable in his 13 first-half minutes off the bench. He unconsciously hit virtually everything that left his hand and finished 7-of-10 from the field, including 3-of-3 from the perimeter to notch 17 points at the half.
 
However, the senior couldn't equal his production in the second half. Balducci's percentage dipped to just 25 percent (2-of-8) from the field, but he still finished as SUNY New Paltz's leading scorer with a game-high 22 points.
 
"Dylan always has a green light," Kenney said. "We don't really run a lot of stuff for him. He is one of our best shooters. I think they smartly just went after him, guarded him better and smartly threw another defender at him and forced him into some tough shots. But we knew at halftime we couldn't rely on him shooting like that the whole game, so we talked about driving getting to the rim, and we just didn't do it. We just relied on jump shots."
 
After four different lead changes in the first 20 minutes, the Lakers went ahead by three at the break. The Hawks went up one more time on the night following jumper by Matthew English, which was followed with Paquette's 3, but it was the last time SUNY New Paltz saw the lead.
 
Once the Lakers gained momentum, they re-ignited from distance and knocked down six more shots from behind the perimeter to continue padding up their cushion and put the game out of reach. They ended up shooting nearly 54 percent from the field and from 3-point range, while SUNY New Paltz shot 45 percent from the floor, including a productive 10-of-20 from 3.
 
"I think it our offense stalled and we weren't taking good shots," Kenney said. "I would say our shot selection and ball movement was slowed down, so we didn't get anything good. And defensively, we just had break down's. We didn't rotate to shooters. We weren't doing the things that we should have been doing that we were doing in the first half."
 
Paquette followed Balducci offensively with 14 points, hitting 5-of-9 from the field, including 4-of-7 from the arc. Tristan Wisseman added seven points, three rebounds, three assists and a steal, while Jake Passaretti also chipped in with seven points to go along with a rebound and a steal in just 11 minutes off the bench.
 
The Hawks will look to redeem themselves against SUNY Cortland Saturday. Tip-off is scheduled for 3 p.m. in the Hawk Center.