New Paltz, NY – The State University of New York at New Paltz overcame a rough shooting performance Saturday against visiting Fredonia State and collected its eighth conference victory after knocking off the Blue Devils, 53-40 in the Hawk Center.

The Hawks (13-3 overall, 8-1 SUNYAC) had one of their worst shooting outings of the year after a hot start to open up the first quarter. They netted just 23.3 percent from the floor and finished 4-for-33 from behind the arc, including 0-13 in the third quarter alone.

Fredonia (6-9, 2-6) took advantage of its size inside and SUNY New Paltz's poor shooting night and made it difficult for the Hawks to penetrate in the paint. The hosts ultimately scored 18 points in the lane, eight of which came in the first half.

"They do a really good job with their personnel. They are pretty big, really two through five big, but they are not very quick. They do a very good job of packing it in and challenging you to make shots and as we struggled more and more to make shots, they became that much more brazen about not coming out to defend the perimeter," said SUNY New Paltz coach Jamie Seward after the game. "When they went zone, which they played a lot of in the second half, the first possession we got an easy basket on a high-low. The next one we got was really pretty tough… and that was because they were challenging us to make shots. If we made a couple maybe they come out of the zone or maybe they come out and guard us a little bit more, but it's tough. It's one of those where the game is calling you to make some shots and then we didn't really rebound the ball all that well behind it and when you add that up it's a 20-point second half is what that ended up being."
 

The Hawks jumped out to a 12-2 lead within the first six minutes of the game. In that span they knocked down 4-for-12 from the field before ending the quarter with a 20-10 advantage. Lexi Van Vorst sank two from the perimeter and Olivia Badura hit another from distance to total three of SUNY New Paltz's four made treys of the game.

The lead stretched to as many as 16 late in the second quarter with the Hawks scoring the majority of their points from the foul line, connecting on 7-for-8. They ultimately ended the half with a 33-19 advantage after a made basket by the Blue Devils' Morgan Davis.

Fredonia switched to a zone in the second half and SUNY New Paltz had a hard time finding points in the half court. Maddie Van Pelt found Paige Niemeyer inside on the Hawks' opening possession to bring the cushion back to 16, but from there SUNY New Paltz missed 10-straight attempts – eight of which came from 3-point range. Van Vorst broke up the streak, cutting her way through the paint for a contested layup at the rim.
The Blue Devils didn't put too much of a dent into the deficit during the Hawks' cold stretch, however, as the hosts forced them into a pair of turnovers and limited them to just 3-of-13 from the field during that span to maintain the double-digit difference.

Back-to-back layups by Fredonia trimmed the lead to eight, but Niemeyer made an attempt at the line late in the quarter to give SUNY New Paltz a 40-31 advantage going into the final 10 minutes.

With the Hawks still struggling from the floor through the fourth, the Blue Devils inched back in and got within four following a made 3 by Jayla James with about six minutes to go. Marion Dietz put some distance between the score after picking up an offensive board and put-back after a missed jumper by Niemeyer. Van Pelt came up with a steal on the ensuing possession and Dietz cashed in again, getting to the foul line after running the floor in transition.

Niemeyer broke a 3-point drought and buried an attempt from the perimeter with about 2:30 to go and the Hawks piggy-backed on the points with Niemeyer forcing a turnover with a steal on the defensive end. She pushed ahead to Dietz once more and she finished for two to boost the lead to 11 with less than two minutes to go.

"We definitely struggled from the perimeter and just like everywhere in general, so in the fourth quarter we just wanted to get to the offensive boards and hope that there was enough of us crashing that we would just get an open layup," Dietz said. "My mentality was just, 'get to the boards, get to boards,' and it ended up working out."

Dietz hit another in the last half minute to put the finishing touches on the 13-point win. She ended the night with a team-high 15 points on 5-for-12 shooting, including 5-for-7 from the foul line, with three rebounds two assists and three steals. Niemeyer followed with 23 points, six rebounds, two assists, two steals and two blocks.
  The Hawks did a better job than in their previous game of not turning the ball over, finishing with just nine, while forcing the Blue Devils into 24. They capitalized with 24 points off those miscues and added 15 more from the foul line where they finished about 79 percent, which they needed in a 17-for-73 shooting performance.

"We talked about that to the team afterward and I really need to go back and take a look again to see. Statistically speaking it looks like a pretty clean game defensively," said Seward. "We forced a pretty good amount of turnovers. We did a good job on the defensive glass. We didn't foul, but they also scored 39 points last night too. I don't know how much of it was us with a great defensive effort. I thought we were really good in a couple spots, but I don't think overall the consistency of urgency I guess is the best way to describe it is. We just don't seem to have that consistently."

SUNY New Paltz has four days to prepare for its next game Saturday against SUNY Oneonta. It marks the second half of its season, playing the rest of the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) for the back-end of its home-and-home.

"It is really critical. It is our last real shot to put multiple days in a row together in practice and be able to work on some things," Seward said. "It is important that we as a coaching staff figure out what is most important and what we can actually accomplish with that time and then put that time into the right things. And then, it is important for our players to recognize whatever we deem to be those important things that they need to really focus in on making sure those things are done really well and they are done consistently well, not just sporadically. It's a huge week. Every day is really important. We need to have good step forward type of days. It is hard to get better this time of year, so having an opportunity to go four days in a row is really useful if we take advantage of it."

For everything #NPHawks be sure to follow us on Twitter at @nphawks, Instagram and Facebook at @newpaltzhawks, and subscribe to our Youtube channel, New Paltz Hawks.