Nashville, TN — The State University of New York at New Paltz opened up the Music City Classic Sunday on the campus of Trevecca Nazarene University and went up against the high-powered offense of Simpson University (IA).
 
The Hawks (5-2 overall) couldn't overcome the Storm's aggressive defense, committing a season-high 29 turnovers, while allowing the opposition to hit on more than 54 percent from the field, which resulted in an 88-60 final that handed SUNY New Paltz just its second loss of the season.

"I feel like I did a really bad job of preparing them," said Hawks coach Jamie Seward. "There is nothing tricky about it. It is pretty straightforward, they press and they trap. They're aggressive and they play a 2-3 zone in the half court, and on the offensive end they shoot the ball really well. They are one of the most efficient teams in the country. I wasn't able to do a good enough job of helping our players understand that and as result, we took one on the chin pretty bad."
 

SUNY New Paltz got on the board first, breaking Simpson's press to get an easy basket in transition from Philesha Teape. However, the Storm answered with nine-straight points and the Hawks never re-gained the lead from then on.
 
Maddie Van Pelt and Marion Dietz were the first-half catalysts, combining for 22 of the Hawks' 40 first-half points. Van Pelt, after knocking down back-to-back jumpers, connected on a 3-pointer after banking her shot in and cutting the score to four with about 2 minutes, 46 seconds left. Simpson countered with six-straight points before Graci Serravillo broke up the run with less than a minute left. The Storm added two more baskets before quarter's end and extended their cushion to 30-22 entering the second period.
 
Simpson began pulling away in the following 10 minutes, as the Hawks struggled to hold on to the ball and close out on the Storm's hot-shooters.
 
SUNY New Paltz turned the ball over a season-high 16 times in the first half, while allowing Simpson to connect on 20-of-31 attempts, which led to its 54-40 advantage at the break. The 54 first-half points were the most the Hawks have given up all season, while the Storm's shooting percentage of 66.7 percent was also a season-most.  
"I just felt like we tried to out-score them and they are too good offensively to out-score them," Seward said. "We just didn't really seem to want to make a stand defensively. Anytime we got a little traction in the game we turned the ball over, we'd give up a wide-open 3 or how many layups did they get? Whether it was in transition after a made basket and they just beat us up the floor — so again, clearly I just did a bad job preparing them for what they were going to do, but also prepare them to play in general."
 
SUNY New Paltz scored just five points in the third and although it picked up its play in the fourth, allowing just 13 points in the quarter after limiting the Storm to shoot 5-for-12 from the field, the Hawks couldn't overcome the large deficit and saw their three-game winning streak come to an end. Simpson earned its fourth-straight victory and improved to 8-3 overall.
 
The Storm scored 37 points off 29 Hawk turnovers — a season-worst for SUNY New Paltz — and added 38 points in the paint, while finishing 54.2 percent from the field and 47.6 percent (10-of-21) from 3-point range.

The Hawks, meanwhile, shot less than 35 percent from the floor, including 33.3 percent from 3-point range. Van Pelt finished with a team-high 13 points, followed by Dietz with 11. Olivia Badura and Serravillo added nine and eight points, respectively, off the bench.
 
"I have to sit down and really figure out how to do a better job of helping them to play better," Seward said. "They don't want to play poorly. I put them in position to play poorly and we did exactly what we did the first two days of practice. That wasn't going to work and it didn't work."
 
SUNY New Paltz looks to re-group Monday when it takes on Rose-Hulman College (IN) in the second day of the Music City Classic. Tip-off is scheduled for 6 p.m. eastern standard time.

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