Box Score Oneonta, NY – Walking over to the bench with her team holding on to a hefty lead and just minutes remaining, State University of New York at New Paltz senior guard Lindsay Bettke was still not satisfied. The Pelham, NY native was closing in on a career night and was the catalyst in a huge, 73-55, win over hosting SUNY Oneonta Saturday, but knew her team was capable of more.

"She came to the bench during a timeout in the first half and we had a pretty good lead, and she was not happy and not content at all," said Hawks coach Jamie Seward. "That's the markings of a great player right there."

Although SUNY New Paltz needed to overcome a few miscues in the first half, it ultimately rolled to its ninth-straight win, claiming sole possession of first place in the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) standings, led by a career-high 32 points off 13-for-23 shooting from the field, including 6-for-9 from 3-point range by Bettke. 
The Hawks (13-4 overall, 9-1 SUNYAC) were motivated going into the matchup, as the Red Dragons (14-3, 8-2) were the only conference team to hand them a loss thus far. SUNY New Paltz felt as though it played poor defense in the first go-around, which led to a career-high for SUNY Oneonta's leading scorer Leanne Coroso.

However, on Saturday, the Hawks limited Corso to 18 points and just 2-for-9 from behind the arc, while keeping second-leading scorer Alexa Amalbert to just 10 points in the outing.

"I was pretty confident coming in to this one," Seward said. "They had a really good week of preparation, would have been a great week if not for a little blip yesterday, and we knew we could take them out of their sets. We just needed to do a better job of finishing off those defensive possessions and today we did a better job of that."

SUNY New Paltz gained the lead right off the opening jump and took a 12-point cushion into the second quarter following a made bucket by Madison Van Pelt, assisted by Bettke, near the buzzer. The Hawks led by as many as 15 in the second period, but couldn't extend its lead further with the Red Dragons answering with a couple defensive stops and buckets in the paint.

Rachel Simon knocked down a jumper with about a minute remaining until the half, but Madeline Frank answered right back for SUNY Oneonta to keep the deficit at 10. Again, Bettke came up clutch, as she buried another trey at the horn to push her team ahead, 38-25 at the break.
SUNY New Paltz took all of its momentum into the second half, limited its mistakes and carried on with an 11-3 run to start the third, which resulted in its largest lead of the game at 52-28. Simon capped off the run with one of her four 3's in the game.

Simon and Bettke led the way from there, totaling 52 of the Hawks' 73 points. The Red Dragons got as close as 16 down the stretch, but ultimately could not climb out of the deficit and suffered just their third loss of the year.

Along with her 32 points, Bettke added three rebounds, three assists, a block and a steal to her stat line, while Simon finished with 20 points on 8-for-17 shooting from the field, including 4-for-7 from 3-point range with a team-high seven rebounds and two assists.  

"I rode Rachel pretty hard all week about not playing well against the top teams, so it was good to see her shut me up," Seward said. "And I had a pretty strong suspicion that Lindsay was going to play well. When she gets it going like that, she is awfully tough to contain. She was totally locked in."

SUNY New Paltz will try extending its winning streak to 10 when it's back in the Hawk Center Tuesday to take on visiting Oswego State with tip-off scheduled for 5:30 p.m.

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