Heading into the weekend riding an eight-game winning streak, the State University of New York at New Paltz women's basketball team has arguably its biggest game of the regular season Saturday on the road against SUNY Oneonta, the only State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) team to defeat the Hawks (12-4 overall, 8-1 SUNYAC) so far this year.
 
"I think it is a three-way tie for first right now. If we win this then we can solidify [ourselves] at the top of the league and then maybe be able to host for SUNYACs and that is really important to us," said SUNY New Paltz sophomore forward Nicole Ziogas. "Geneseo was a big game, but I think this is our biggest game so far, just the rivalry and what we have at stake." 
 
The Red Dragons (14-2, 8-1) out-played the Hawks in the teams' first matchup in the Hawk Center Dec. 8. SUNY Oneonta had built a 12-point cushion after a dominant second quarter in which it held SUNY New Paltz to just eight points on three made baskets.
 
The Hawks battled back in the second half, however, and tied the game at 69 with a minute left in the fourth quarter. It couldn't complete the rally though, as the Red Dragons junior forward Leanne Corso put an exclamation point on a career-game by knocking down the go-ahead 3-pointer that pushed her team back in front and allowed them to pull away with a 76-69 win.
 
"We know the biggest mistakes when we played Oneonta the first time around was that we really messed up on our switches," Ziogas said. "We had this one play where they beat us on every single time. We really focused on watching film on it and doing it in practice repeatedly, making sure we didn't mess up and that we are so solid at it. That was the only way they scored on us, so if we do that than it [will be] easy."
 
Corso finished with 28 points on 10-for-13 shooting from the field with 12 rebounds. Junior guard Alexa Amalbert also had one of the best night's in her career, finishing with 22 points, three rebounds and two assists.
 
"We know [Corso is] good, but a lot of the shots she made were on wide open 3's that we messed up on our switches again on defense," Ziogas said. "We know she's a really good shooter and we've given up a lot of career high's against a lot of teams, so we know we have to stop her. They don't have a lot of scorers and at the end of the day they made a lot of shots on wide open 3's that we just miscommunicated on on defense." Like the Hawks, SUNY Oneonta heads into the game on a four-game winning streak and also like SUNY New Paltz, has just one SUNYAC loss on the season, which came against defending conference champion SUNY Geneseo Jan. 11. A win over the Red Dragons would push the Hawks to the top of the league standings with the chance to host its first SUNYAC playoff game since 2016.
 
SUNY New Paltz is coming off a dominant weekend on the road against Buffalo State and Fredonia State, out-scoring the opposition 180-133 on the weekend. The Hawks scored a season-high 98 points against the Bengals, shooting 52.2 percent from the field and against the Blue Devils were led by senior guard Lindsay Bettke whose team-high 16 points pushed her passed the 1,000-point career threshold to be just the fifth Hawk to reach that mark.
 
Bettke (15.2 points per game) and senior guard Rachel Simon (17.7 points per game) lead the Hawks offensively, as the two are among the league-leaders in scoring.
 
Corso paces the Red Dragons with about 12 points and eight rebounds per game, followed by Amalbert who is averaging 11.1 points and 2.8 assists a contest.
 
"I think we're really confident and coach has been saying since the end of intersession that we have to be locked in and I think this whole week of practice we've been locked in, focused and everything we've been doing is loud and we're talking. We're being aggressive and if we do that we're always going to win," Ziogas said.
 
SUNY New Paltz is set to take on SUNY Oneonta Saturday in the Dewar Arena at 2 p.m. To stay up to date with everything #NPHawks be sure to follow us on Twitter at @nphawks,Instagram and Facebook at @newpaltzhawks, and subscribe to our Youtube channel, New Paltz Hawks.