In its first road conference weekend of the season Jan. 17 and 18, the State University of New York at New Paltz couldn't cement a win against SUNY Geneseo or The College at Brockport and fell to the bottom of the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) standings at 0-6.

The Hawks (4-9 overall, 0-6 SUNYAC) are the only team without a league victory through at least six games played and they are hoping to turn that around Tuesday when they are back on the road, this time to face SUNY Cortland (9-4, 3-3).

SUNY New Paltz split its series with the Red Dragons last season. After a rough game in the Hawk Center to open up the home-and-home last year, which saw the Hawks give up a nine made 3's by senior Nicky Badura in an 89-67 loss, they bounced back about a month later on Cortland's floor. They pulled off the victory after limiting the Red Dragons to a season-low and held a 15-point advantage nearing halftime. The hosts rallied to chip away at the lead and were within four with a minute to go, but SUNY New Paltz made enough at the foul line to secure the victory.

The Red Dragons have lost their last two games heading into the matchup Tuesday, which ended a seven-game winning streak. They fell to SUNY Oneonta Jan. 14 in a tight, 89-81 game and then suffered their third conference loss of the season Saturday against Oswego, 68-66. Cortland's three SUNYAC victories have come against SUNY Geneseo, Buffalo State and Fredonia – all of which are toward the bottom of the league standings.
The Red Dragons graduated two All-SUNYAC players in Justin Cooper and Bonura, but they added transfer Charles O. Dickerson who has led the team with 22 points and 16.7 rebounds per game after starting all 13 games thus far. The team got junior transfer Eric Edwards back after he missed six games, and he follows Dickerson offensively with 18 points and 6.9 rebounds per game. Junior guard Ben Walkers, who along with Grunder, are the only players for Cortland to start all 13 games, adds 13.5 points per game, followed by senior forward Ryan Schmadel with 13.1 points a contest.

It averages a league-most, 84.7 points per game, while shooting nearly 48 and 41 percent from the field and from the perimeter, respectively – also best in the SUNYAC. Defensively, the Red Dragons give up about 73.3 points per game, allowing the opposition to shoot 40.6 percent from the field and just 28.8 percent from 3-point range.

The 0-6 conference start for the Hawks is the worst since head coach Keith Kenney took over the program in the 2017-18 season. In their most recent outings against the Knights and Golden Eagles, SUNY New Paltz hang around early and played both teams tight, but second-half runs midway through the period resulted in double-digit losses.

The Hawks are in need of not only a SUNYAC victory, but also are looking to put an end to a four game losing skid since the calendar year flipped. During their four-game slump, the team has averaged 62 points, surpassing 60 points just once, while shooting 39.6 percent from the field and 27 percent from behind the arc, while giving up an average of nearly 80 points against, allowing less than 80 points once in the stretch.

Senior Tristan Wissemann leads the team with 14.3 points per game to go along with 5.2 rebounds and 2.2 assists a contest. Wissemann is also on pace to enter the Hawks' 1,000-point club by regular season's end, as he is just 130 points shy of hitting that mark. He would be the 20th player for SUNY New Paltz to reach 1,000 career points and the first since Taylor Sowah in 2015.

Jake Passaretti follows offensively, averaging 11.5 points per game to go along with 3.7 rebounds and a team-best 3.5 assists and 1.5 steals a contest.

SUNY New Paltz is set to tip-off against the Red Dragons Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. in Corey Gymnasium.

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