The State University of New York at New Paltz men's basketball team are looking to end the year strong as it finishes the year on the road against Plattsburgh State (15-1 overall, 18-4 SUNYAC) and SUNY Potsdam (5-11, 10-13).

"It is really important to end it strong," said Hawks senior forward Brandon Guest. "For these guys moving forward, we have a lot to look forward to in this program. We got great leadership still. Coach [Keith] Kenney is leading us all in the right direction. So the future from here to come – I'm going to come and look back, and just see the mark that we left."

Although playoff hopes have ended, SUNY New Paltz (4-12, 7-16) is hoping to end the year on a positive note heading into next year.

The Hawks immensely improved from their 1-23 campaign a season ago. Not only had they upped their win total, but also have shown a bump in points per game (72.4), points allowed per game (80), field goal percentage (41.7), rebounds per game (39.3) and have gotten their turnovers down to about 15 per game.

"I think it was definitely a great year for most of us," said Hawks senior guard Dylan Balducci. "It was definitely better than year's past and we improved this year. We came up short a few times, a few games we should have won, but we worked hard throughout the entire year and a lot of the guys are returning. All the seniors here, I'm going to miss all of them."

Balducci heads into the weekend as SUNY New Paltz's leading scorer, totaling 14.5 points per game, while averaging 35.2 percent from 3-point range. The Massapequa, NY native led his team with 11 points on 4-of-16 shooting against the Cardinals Jan. 26. He kept his team in it early, as the Hawks trailed the conference leaders by just six at the half. But ultimately, they didn't have an answer for Plattsburgh State's top players, Jonathan Patron and Eli Bryant who combined for 42 of their team's 100 points.

"They have a really big guy down low, who's dominant, talented player," Balducci said of Patron and the Cardinals. "So, we just have to make sure we're throwing double teams at him, getting out on their shooters and I think we'll be pretty good this weekend. We'll hope for the best and end the year on a good note."

But before SUNY New Paltz can take on Plattsburgh State, it has a re-match against SUNY Potsdam, which is still vying for the final SUNYAC playoff spot.

It was a tight battle when the Bears came to the Hawk Center on Jan. 27. The Hawks held most of the momentum and led by as many as 11 with just seven minutes left in the game, but SUNY Potsdam made a late run and re-gained the lead with 18 seconds remaining.

SUNY New Paltz had a chance to win it at the buzzer, but Cory Garcia's last second shot, which looked good from all angles, unfortunately was a little too strong and bounced off the back rim to solidify a disappointing, 75-73, loss.

"Revenge, that is a good word," Guest said, "It means everything. We're just going to go out there and fight. We have to leave it all out there. Obviously, me, Saunders and Balducci we're all taking this personally. So we're just going to go out there and write our wrongs and get back our W."

For the Hawks to have a solid weekend, Guest will play a pivotal role. He leads his team this year in double-double's (3), and goes into the weekend averaging 9.3 points and six rebounds per game.

Guest, Balducci and fellow senior James Saunders, are especially motivated to end the season on a high to conclude their colleague basketball careers.

"We just want to end the season on a positive note, keep the program going in the direction we need to go. We got two winnable games this weekend. We just got to go out and play hard," Saunders said. "It's not really about the teams that we're playing, it is about us. We haven't played well on the road this year, so we just got to bring the energy. We got to find a way to bring our own energy with us."

SUNY New Paltz is scheduled to take on SUNY Potsdam at 7:30 p.m. Friday and then will tip-off against Plattsburgh State at 3 p.m. Saturday. Be sure to follow @nphawks on Twitter and @newpaltzhawks on Instagram and Facebook for updates, scores, recaps and more!