Throughout her Hawks career, State University of New York at New Paltz women's basketball senior guard Lindsay Bettke always had a knack for making the biggest shots in the brightest moments. That was the case when she scored 20 points in her first NCAA tournament game her freshman year and continued her sophomore season when she led her team to their second-straight conference title after being named State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) Tournament MVP. The trend continued this past weekend, as she totaled 43 points in the Hawks' two postseason games en route guiding her team to the program's third SUNYAC title in four years to score another Tournament MVP honor.
 
And on Tuesday, after being one of the league's best players throughout her career, leading three SUNYAC Championship teams, being named All-SUNYAC for two consecutive years, earning two SUNYAC Tournament MVP awards, Bettke has earned the conference's highest honor, as the SUNYAC Women's Basketball Player of the Year.

"To me it was a no-brainer. Quite honestly the only other person you could consider would be her teammate, Rachel [Simon]," said SUNY New Paltz coach Jamie Seward. "A player who has had such an impact not only on this program, but this league for her entire career. I think she led the team that dominated the league start to finish. That alone made her the deserving player of the year, but she also backed it up statistically. She was one of the league's leading scorers, topped the league in assist-to-turnover ratio and one of the top players in the country in that statistic, which statistically speaking is the most important number for a point guard. She did that and scored a bunch on top of that. She had her biggest games and best moments in the most important spots and that is who she's always been as well."
 
Bettke has had a career year in her final season as a Hawk, averaging 15.6 points per game, which ranks fifth in the conference, making 152 shots from the floor, averaging 38.7 percent from 3-point range, while also totaling 86 assists and 36 steals, which all rank top-12 in the SUNYAC. She became just the fifth Hawk to surpass the 1,000-point mark, all while helping her team to a program-best 17-1 record en route to another SUNYAC Championship and a spot in the NCAA Tournament for the fourth time in program history.
 
"As cliché as it might be, you always talk about [the best players] make people better and she makes things easier for everybody around her," Seward said. "She puts people in better spots and just makes people better."
 
Bettke first broke out in the middle of her freshman season. Fittingly, she dropped 20 points during her first game seeing 20-plus minutes. Her performance foreshadowed the role she would play for SUNY New Paltz that next season. She was the ultimate x-factor in helping SUNY New Paltz earn another SUNYAC Championship, as she averaged 20.5 points through two SUNYAC playoff games en route to earning her first SUNYAC Tournament MVP accolade.

Although the Hawks had a disappointing end to their 2017-18 campaign, Bettke still put up gaudy numbers, which helped her earn an All-SUNYAC First-Team honor. However, the short end to last season just fueled what has become a historic run for the Hawks, led by Bettke.

"I would be lying if I said I thought she'd be the best player in the league and one of the best players or arguably the best player to ever play here," Seward said. "We didn't think she was going to be this good, but you can never look at a player and say that they are going to be the player she became. I don't care how highly touted or how highly recruited they are. We are talking about an All-American. Probably the best player to ever play in our program, you can't ever anticipate anybody being that."
 
Along with earning SUNYAC Player of the Year, Bettke also accrued two SUNYAC Tournament MVP awards, while adding two more All-SUNYAC nods to her impressive resume that will no-doubt grow as the postseason continues. Currently, she sits second all-time in points with 1,197, 147 shy of Kit Small's all-time record, along with ranking ninth all-time in assists.
 
"She has definitely gotten better over the course of her career," Seward said. "She has always had that bounce and that quickness. She's extended her range over the course of her career. Her freshman year she was an OK 3-point shooter and she has certainly become much better than OK around the 3-point arc over the next three years. She has become more of a playmaker… she is a tremendous leader when she has the ball in her hands as our point guard. I think sometimes that makes it so much harder for opponents, because she can get you into your offense and get you where you want to go, but you have to guard her along the way too and that can be very challenging for our defense."
 
Bettke and the Hawks season continues Friday when they host Rutgers-Newark in the first round of the NCAA Tournament in the Hawk Center at 7:30 p.m.

Along with Bettke, senior guard Rachel Simon and coach Jamie Seward also earned All-SUNYAC recognition:
 
First-Team All-SUNYAC: Rachel Simon.
The senior guard had another prolific year after a standout junior season where she was named First-Team All-SUNYAC. She rightfully earned her second First-Team All-SUNYAC selection in 2019 after ranking second in points (484) and points per-game (18.6), eighth in field goal percentage (43.5), second in 3-point percentage (42.6) and eighth in steals (41) in the conference. She put up a career-high 30 points against Buffalo State, but had arguably her best performance in the most pivotal game of the season Saturday in the SUNYAC Championship against SUNY Geneseo. Simon scored a game-high 24 points and led SUNY New Paltz from a 13-point deficit with six minutes remaining to an overtime victory over the Knights.
 
"She really, from start to finish, has been very consistent. Pretty much gets 20-plus every night, just had a couple games where we didn't need to play her a whole lot and that probably hurt her overall numbers, but when she plays 35-38 minutes, she's putting up 25 points," Seward said. "She is just such a good scorer. She is just an incredible, incredible shooter. The best shooter that I have ever been around in my basketball life as a coach, as a player, whatever. If you've got a shot that your life depends on it, I want Rachel Simon taking that shot."
 

SUNYAC Coach of the Year: Jamie Seward.
Seward earned his second Coach of the Year award after guiding his fourth team to a conference championship, with his first Coach of the Year award coming during the 2012-13 season. Despite the lack of recognition given by the conference, Seward has led one of the most successful programs in the SUNYAC in the past decade. He led the Hawks to four SUNYAC titles, including three in the last four years. At the helm this season, Seward guided the Hawks to a program-best 17-1 conference record and a record 19-straight winning streak heading into the team's fourth trip to the NCAA Tournament. Seward and his team will host the first NCAA game in school history Friday, when SUNY New Paltz tips off against Rutgers-Newark Friday in the Hawk Center.

To view the full SUNYAC All-Conference press release, click here. 

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