Box Score New Paltz, NY —The State University of New York at New Paltz men's basketball team had trouble limiting visiting SUNY Cortland around the perimeter Tuesday night in the Hawk Center and fell into an early hole, which limited a stronger second-half effort. Ultimately, the Hawks took their seventh loss of the season after falling, 89-67 to the Red Dragons.
 
SUNY Cortland (11-3 overall, 5-2 SUNYAC) set a new program record, making 21 3's in the game against the Hawks (7-7, 2-5), shooting 21-for-37 from behind the arc. The Red Dragons knocked down 15 of its 3's in the first half, six of which came from senior Nicky Bonura, who matched a career-high after finishing with nine treys in the game.
 
SUNY New Paltz trailed, 51-21, at the half, but stepped up defensively in the second half. The Hawks doubled their point-total, while slowing down the Red Dragons offense from 55 percent to 41 percent shooting from the field.

"Cortland is a 3-point shooting team. Everyone knows it. They lead the league in 3-point attempts and we said we'd only have a chance if we guard the 3-point line and we didn't. It's that simple," said Hawks coach Keith Kenney. "There was nothing different at halftime."
 
Although Bonura still stayed hot and knocked down three more shots from 3-point range to help SUNY Cortland stay out in front, the Hawks, who had trailed by as many as 33, got within 18 midway through the second-half thanks to hot shooting by Nick Paquette from the perimeter. But the deficit was too much to overcome, as SUNY New Paltz took its third loss in four games.
 
Paquette led the Hawks with 18 points, shooting 6-for-10 from 3, while adding four rebounds. Freshmen Isaiah Bien-Aise and Brandon Scott provided solid minutes off the bench for SUNY New Paltz, Bien-Aise totaled a team-high 10 rebounds to go with two assists, a block and two points, while Scott added eight points, five rebounds, one assist and a block.
 
"It's always tough to find the minutes sometimes, but the starters were having an off night so we decided to try something different and bring in some young energy. They played well for the most part," Kenney said.
 
Scott Reisert followed Paquette offensively with 10 points, four rebounds, one assist and a steal.
 
SUNY New Paltz, which has had a rough stretch the last three games, is looking to stay in the playoff hunt this weekend when its on the road to take on Fredonia State and Buffalo State Friday and Saturday, respectively.
 
"Obviously there's been a couple games we haven't been in, but for the most part we've been right there for most of the games," Kenney said. "I just told them, right now we're at the point where we can let it affect us, or we can keep playing and keep working. We're still right in the thick of the playoff hunt. We just have 11 games left. We can look at it one of two ways. We can feel sorry for ourselves or we can start improving."

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