Box Score New Paltz, NY — The State University of New York at New Paltz women's basketball team collected its fourth-straight win Friday after playing one of its best defensive games of the season to earn a 60-47 win over visiting The College at Brockport.

"I thought we did a good job. We were pretty solid defensively and that was one of our best defensive efforts of the year," said Hawks coach Jamie Seward. "We needed it, because we struggled to put the ball in the basket there after the first quarter. It was nice to see we were able to defend well when we weren't scoring and that is something we've talked about. I think we did a nice job tonight."

The 47 points SUNY New Paltz gave up was two shy of a season low for the team. They kept the Golden Eagles to 34 percent shooting from the field and just 15 percent from 3-point range, and for the second-straight game the Hawks forced 20-plus turnovers. They caused 29 in a win against Oswego State Tuesday and Friday forced 22 from Brockport, capitalizing with 23 points off those miscues.

"The game plan was to communicate with each other and pressure the ball," said SUNY New Paltz junior guard Kei-Kei Glover. "We communicated well on the backside, pressuring the ball and also in our traps. We trapped the ball really well and we rotated on the backside."

Rachel Simon gave the Hawks the lead off the opening tip and they never trailed from then on. Their lead ballooned to as many as 13 in the first half, but the Golden Eagles brought the deficit down to seven before the break.

SUNY New Paltz got great production from their bench in the game, especially from Glover who added a spark toward the end of the first quarter, which helped lead into a strong second period. She totaled four of her career-high 10 points in the final two minutes of the first, while finishing with career high's in steals (2) and minutes played (16).

"Kei-Kei had a really strong week of practice. She did a lot of nice things throughout the week and really played with great effort defensively on the floor and that carried over," Seward said. "She made some great plays on the floor and just with her effort. She's a tough matchup because of what she can do in the post and her ability to find some people or score if they don't help. I thought she made a couple bad decisions, but overall she did a very nice job and helped us get going there in the first quarter."

The Hawks re-established their double-digit cushion as the third quarter winded down, out-scoring Brockport, 14-6 in the period and taking a 49-34 lead entering the fourth.

The Golden Eagles continued to struggle against SUNY New Paltz's defense, but started capitalizing on the glass with second-chance opportunities. Brockport ultimately held the advantage on the boards, 47-38, including 15-13 on the offensive end, which helped the Golden Eagles to trim down the margin to 10 with less than three minutes remaining.

"We unfortunately gave up too many offensive rebounds in the second half after doing a really nice job in the first half, and a lot of them were balls that were in our hands that we just didn't finish the play," Seward said. "We had some very long extensive possessions where we had multiple stops, but because we gave up offensive rebounds we weren't able to get out of there. But overall, I thought it was one of our better defensive efforts and maybe our best defensive effort of the season."

The Hawks stayed aggressive and took advantage at the foul line, making 7-of-9 in the final two minutes left to put the game away.

Along with Glover, Philesha Teape played big minutes off the bench. She was aggressive on the glass and got several offensive rebounds back up for second-chance points, while also holding down strong on the defensive end. In 11 minutes Teape finished with seven points, six rebounds — four on the offensive glass — and two steals.

"I thought Phil played maybe her best game of her career," Seward said." She's always aggressive to the glass, but did a really nice job of gathering and finishing strong when she did get those offensive rebounds. I thought she did a nice job defensively. She was much more engaged on the next play and the next rotation and made a couple rotations and came up with a couple steals on plays that she doesn't generally make, so that was really nice to see and really encouraging. Hopefully she is making that progress and carries it over to the next day as well."

Simon finished with a team-high 14 points on 6-for-15 shooting from the field with four rebounds. Paige Niemeyer followed with 11 points, six rebounds, an assist, a block and two steals in 21 minutes SUNY New Paltz.

The Hawks are back on their home floor Saturday in a highly anticipated matchup with reigning conference champion SUNY Geneseo at 2 p.m.   

"I was really hyped about this game. It was a big game with Brockport coming in. They thought they could beat us, but we put it on them," Glover said. "It gives us real confidence. We are prepared and we're ready for [Geneseo]. It is going to be a big game for us. We just got to carry it over and to the game tomorrow and if we do, we'll come out with a win."

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