With five games left in the regular season, the State University of New York at New Paltz women's basketball team is closing in on clinching the top seed in the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) playoffs for the first time since 2016. And, if the Hawks (16-4, 12-1) win-out the rest of the way, they'll finish with the best conference record in program history. However, they must first get through this weekend against two tough teams in Buffalo State (11-11, 5-10) and Fredonia State (11-11, 8-7).
 
"With five games left you're definitely anxious and stuff, but we're just going to take it one game at a time and live in the moment," said SUNY New Paltz junior guard Marion Dietz. "Live in today, get better today and then hopefully get better the next day and the next day. We're not trying to look too far in to the future."
 
Both the Bengals and Blue Devils are clambering for a spot near the top of the conference, hoping to clinch a playoff berth. Fredonia currently sits at the fifth spot, behind Cortland, while SUNY Oneonta, SUNY Geneseo and SUNY New Paltz have all earned its way through. Buffalo State sits on the outskirts a game behind The College at Brockport with a 5-9 conference mark.
 
When the Hawks made the trip to Buffalo and Fredonia earlier in the season, they went home with two lopsided victories in back-to-back impressive performances.

Against the Blue Devils, Lindsay Bettke led the way for SUNY New Paltz. The senior guard scored her 1,000th point early in the contest before finishing with a team-high 16 points, but the Hawks also received great production from their bench as well. The reserves totaled 30 of their 82 points, while four players finished in double-figures.
 
"When we played Fredonia I remember we got off to a hot start," Dietz said. "Lindsay got off to a hot start, Rachel [Simon] got off to a hot start and we kind of let our defense dictate how Fredonia played and how we played."
 
SUNY New Paltz followed up the win over Fredonia with its most prolific scoring out-put of the season against Buffalo State, routing the Bengals, 98-73.
 
"When we played Buff State we struggled a little bit in the beginning," Dietz said. "We jumped out to a lead and then we kind of let them back into it and we let their best player get hot in the second half, so we just have to limit those mistakes and come out stronger." Senior guard Rachel Simon scored a career-high 30 points for the Hawks, while Paige Niemeyer, Dietz and Bettke all finished with 15-plus points in the outing. SUNY New Paltz had its best shooting performance on the season as well, finishing 52.2 percent from the field, including nearly 60 percent from 3-point range.
 
Defensively, they kept Bengals leading scorer Liv LeBaron in check. The junior forward currently leads the conference with 443 points, but the Hawks held the junior forward to just 15 points in their first meeting.
 
"LeBaron is having a great year, so we just have to make sure we don't give her her right hand and we're all helping in who ever is defending her," Dietz said. "It's going to be a team effort to contain her and keep everyone else contained as well."
 
Buffalo State is 2-2 in its last four games and is coming off a 68-57 loss against SUNY Geneseo Feb. 5, while Fredonia State enters the weekend on a three-game winning streak. The Blue Devils defeated Plattsburgh State, SUNY Potsdam and The College of Brockport during their run, holding the opposition to just 48 points against in that span.
 
"Fredonia has [Jenna] Einink who is a really good shooter," Dietz said. "She boxes out well, she rebounds, so we really need to limit where she is and limit her touches and the whole team does a great job of crashing the boards, so we have to make sure we just rebound and keep doing what we're doing."
 
The Hawks, meanwhile, who recently received a No. 1 regional ranking in the latest NCAA poll, enter the matchups on a 12-game winning streak. They've averaged 72.8 points per game, while allowing teams just 61.5 against this season. Simon and Bettke are two of the top-3 scorers in the SUNYAC, averaging 19.1 and 16 points per contest, respectively.
 
SUNY New Paltz is set to face the Bengals Friday at 5:30 p.m. and then the Blue Devils Saturday at 2 p.m. in the Hawk Center.

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