Box Score New Paltz, NY — The State University of New York at New Paltz women's basketball team collected its 16th-straight win Friday night, despite not playing its best basketball against visiting SUNY Potsdam.
 
The Hawks (20-4 overall, 16-1 SUNYAC) had a dominating opening quarter, but allowed the Bears (8-15, 5-12) to crawl back into the game and ultimately trim what was once a double-digit lead to just nine with about six minutes left in the game. However, SUNY New Paltz knocked down its shots down the stretch and distanced itself  to still pull away with a 83-69 win.
 
"They just did what they do and we didn't do a very good job of handling it," said Hawks coach Jamie Seward. "They attacked the basket and we had a game plan that we thought would work. I think it did work, but we didn't execute it consistently. We would get a little bit of a lead and then we just lost sight of what we were doing out there. Credit to them. It looked like they were about done early and then they sprung to life and gave us a lot of problems in the second, third and fourth quarters." 
 
SUNY New Paltz quickly jumped out to a 15-point lead early in the second quarter, following a hook shot in the lane by Philesha Teape. The Bears fought to trim the deficit, but a steal by Nicole Ziogas and assist to Madison Van Pelt in transition with just more than a minute left pushed the Hawks lead to 39-27 and the score sat there until after halftime.
 
SUNY Potsdam stayed within 11 for most of the third quarter, but the Hawks created some distance in the final minutes of the period. Ziogas, Teape, Marion Dietz and Taylor Howell combined for seven points in the last three minutes to push their team's lead to 18 with 31 seconds to go, but the Bears' Carly Shear knocked down a 3-pointer to bring the difference back down to 15 entering the fourth.
 
Midway through the final period, Devyn Elliott sliced through the paint and got her shot to go for SUNY Potsdam and following a Hawks miss on the other end, Abbey Smith earned three attempts at the foul line after getting hit on the arm outside the perimeter. She connected on all three of her free throws to get the Bears within nine.
 
"It was just a very patchy, spotty effort," Seward said. "I thought we did a better job in the second half moving the basketball against their zone. We just had a hard time finishing. So it was a little deceiving how the score got close, but at the end of the day they had a chance to get it to six. They had a 3 that could have got it to six and when you're not making shots, you have to defend. We made some shots there to open it up towards the end, but we've got to have a much more focused and better effort. I think more mental effort on the defensive side."
 
Ziogas responded for the Hawks, as Van Pelt dished out a nice pass for the assist to bring SUNY New Paltz's lead back to double-figures. Dietz then registered a steal on the ensuing possession and found Ziogas for two more. SUNY Postam answered on the other end, but Ziogas again was there to respond for the Hawks, as she buried a trey to fatten the SUNY New Paltz cushion to 14 with about four minutes remaining.
 
The Bears continued attacking the basket with positive results, but the Hawks found holes in their defensive zone to hold on to the steady lead and ultimately claim the win.

"I said next time we play like this on a Friday, there's not going to be a Saturday," Seward said of his post-game talk to his team. "The season is gong to be over. If we play like this next Friday then they're going to be playing the championship game on our court without us in it. It's kind of been a consistent theme lately of not playing well on Friday's and this was our last chance to get that straightened out and we definitely didn't do a good job of that. Not to take anything away from Potsdam, but we just feel like we didn't have the focus to execute our game plan consistently."
 
Simon and Dietz led SUNY New Paltz offensively with 19 and 17 points, respectively, followed by Van Pelt (12), while Ziogas also added 12 points off the bench. On the defensive end, the Hawks set a season-high in caused turnovers, as the Bears finished with 36 on the night.
 
Although SUNY New Paltz already clinched the top seed in the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) tournament next weekend, Seward wants to see more from his team heading into Saturday's regular season finale against Plattsburgh State.
 
"Just locking in on, 'this is what we're supposed to be doing,' and doing it not once or twice, but doing it over and over and over again," Seward said. "We've shown we can do that. We've been really good defensively over the course of the last few weeks, but tonight we did it at times. We drew some charges, forced a lot of turnovers, but we just didn't do it consistently enough and let some of their players do what they do well and you can't do that. You can't do that this time of year or you're not going to have the chance to fix it the next day."
 
The Hawks are set to take on the Cardinals Saturday at 2 p.m. Prior to tip-off the team will honor their three decorated seniors, Simon, Howell and Lindsay Bettke in a pre-game ceremony.

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