New Paltz, NY — The State University of New York at New Paltz escaped with a 66-60 win over visiting Buffalo State Friday night in the Hawk Center, stalling a late fourth quarter comeback from the Bengals.

"I am a little bit confused and a little bit frustrated as to why we didn't seem to play with the same kind of energy and effort necessary to win games in this league," said Hawks coach Jamie Seward after the game. "We were fortunate because Buff State played well. I think we kind of got lucky with [Bengals forward Jenna Lee] picking up two fouls, because if she didn't it's a very different game. Maybe we don't have that lead [in the first half] and if we don't have that lead then I don't know, because we needed every bit of it down the stretch."

SUNY New Paltz took advantage of early foul trouble for Buffalo State, as the visitors had to sit starting forward Jenna Lee for the majority of the first half after she picked up two early fouls. Lee played less than two minutes in the first half, which allowed the Hawks to take advantage in the paint and stretch a 14-4 advantage into the second quarter. SUNY New Paltz saw its lead balloon to as many as 14 midway through the period before the Bengals added on one more basket to cut the score, 30-18 at halftime.

The third quarter started Buffalo State's rally as Lee subbed back in and began to dominate on the block. She helped her team trim the difference to four midway through the period with the Bengals taking advantage of six Hawks turnovers that facilitated the run. Two made free throws by Katie Villarini following a steal on the defensive end, cut the score to 37-33. Philesha Teape answered on the ensuing possession for SUNY New Paltz, which began a 10-1 stretch in the following two minutes to fatten the cushion to double-figures once again. Lee earned a pair of trips to the foul line, making 3-of-4, while Lexi Emmi capitalized on an offensive board and put-back to shorten the deficit to 49-39 for Buffalo State entering the final 10 minutes.
 

"The turnovers that we had in the second half mostly were just mistakes on our end," said Hawks senior forward Paige Niemeyer. "The pressure that they gave was a little bit more than the first half, but I would say it's just careless mistakes on our end. Not spacing the floor right and not continuing to run the offense that was effective in the first half. We got away from it after we got wide-open layups. And so, then we get down in the second half and we're not really sure what we're doing, because we're not spaced right and we don't have the ball in the right people's hands. It was kind of more our mistakes that made us turnover the ball, so much more in the second half than we did in the first. Then you saw Buff State get going off those turnovers and that is really on us."

SUNY New Paltz built a 13-point lead early in the fourth after Olivia Badura capitalized on a Niemeyer block that allowed the former to get out in transition for an easy fast-break bucket. The Hawks hung on to their double-digit lead until the four-minute mark of the quarter, as again, Lee had her way in the paint and continued getting free opportunities at the charity stripe. In the matter of two minutes, Lee, coupled by a 3-pointer by Villarini and a layup from Liv Lebaron, got the Bengals within five with 2:28 to go.

Buffalo State took advantage of the Hawks' short shooting slump, as the hosts missed four consecutive shots before finally breaking up the Bengals run with two made free throws by Marion Dietz. However, the visitors also came up with timely offensive rebounds that extended possessions. Tori Hackett picked up a big offensive rebound following a missed LeBaron attempt in the paint, which resulted in another made 3-pointer by Villarini to get within four at 62-58 with about 40 seconds left.
"I don't feel like we executed well at all in the game," Niemeyer added. "Second half we did a little bit better, but their big [Lee] was out with two fouls in the beginning of the half. I think if she would have been in, it would have been a much closer game... We weren't able to execute the defense correctly and we couldn't play defense on her. That's on the bigs. That's on me to make the adjustments in the second half on her just lobbing it over our heads. And then you see on the offensive end, we can't execute or make shots. We come down and we have a lazy defensive end and it's give or take. If we aren't making shots on offense, we got to start picking up the intensity on defense."

SUNY New Paltz gave the ball back to Buffalo State after another turnover, but the Bengals couldn't convert on the offensive end. LeBaron had two good looks, cutting into the lane and earning an attempt in the paint where she then picked up her own rebound for another look underneath. Neither shot found the bottom of the hoop and the ball eventually fell out of bounds to give the Hawks possession once again. Niemeyer was sent to the line after an intentional foul, and the senior swished both to push her team's lead to six. LeBaron quickly got to the other end for an easy two, but Niemeyer put an end to the Bengals hopes after sinking two more from the foul line in the final 10 seconds to re-establish a six-point SUNY New Paltz advantage. Buffalo State missed one final attempt in the waning seconds to cement the victory for the Hawks.

Buffalo State scored 24 points in the paint and took advantage of 20 SUNY New Paltz turnovers with 14 points off those miscues. Villarini led the way, finishing with a team-high 17 points on 5-for-16 night from the floor, while Lee followed with 16 points, which all came in the second half. She shot 5-of-6 from the field – all in the paint, while also connecting on 6-of-8 from the line.

"I think our team can and should play better. You got to give Buff State credit. They hung in there," Seward said. "We jumped out to an early lead. Their big kid nearly didn't play in the first half and we were really fortunate because she dominated the second half. I thought we did a pretty good job on LeBaron, especially in the first half. We let down a little bit in the fourth quarter. She got to the rim a couple times, but overall we did a good job on her. Just our lack of effort on the defensive end, in and around the basket – I mean a team other than [Lee] that had very little or no size and yet they out-scored us in the paint in the second half. It was really close to even overall in the paint. They had more second chance points than us, so really they did everything that we thought we were supposed to be able to do and you have to give them a lot of credit for that." SUNY New Paltz struggled from distance, connecting on just 3-of-18 from behind the arc, but made an effort down the stretch to get to the basket. The Hawks scored 30 of their points in the paint and shot about 42 percent on the night, while connecting on 17-of-25 attempts from the foul line. However, they were lackluster on the defensive side of the floor unable to limit looks inside. 

"We didn't have a real defensive presence in the paint. [Lee] was their one kid with size and she was playing in foul trouble the whole game," Seward said. "...That gives us opportunities to attack and I thought we, again, on the back end of their press had some bad turnovers, but we also took some bad shots. We took some quick 3's that were open shots, but were also 1-on-1's, 2-on-1's, 3-on-2's that getting to the basket was probably the right play. We showed when we did that we did get to the basket and we did get to the foul line and get some easy points. But, we just didn't do it consistently enough. It was positive, but it wasn't as positive as it needed to be to really take advantage of what they were doing and really open up that lead... We just let them hang around enough for them to make a couple shots in the end and we're lucky they didn't make a couple more. They had a few possessions late, down by four and weren't able to convert on multiple shots on a couple offensive rebounds we gave them. We dodged a bullet there and I think Buff State was the harder playing team today and was a little bit unlucky."

Niemeyer led SUNY New Paltz on the night, matching a career-high 23 points that she set a game earlier against Cortland. She added five rebounds, three assists, three blocks and three steals in 36 minutes. Maddie Van Pelt followed with 15 points and 12 rebounds, registering her third double-double of the season, while adding three steals and a block. Freshman Cassidy Deaver earned her first start of her career and ended the night with six points (3-for-5) to go along with six rebounds, two assists, a block and a steal.

"Honestly, the biggest thing is that we know what we're doing. We just need the desire to do it and we talked about that after the game tonight," Niemeyer said. "We talked about how we need to pick ourselves up and get confidence within ourselves, and within our team and trust each other to execute it right and to make those adjustments, because we know what we're doing. We just got to want to do it. We have a super talented team here. This is almost the most talented team I have ever been on and so, if we make those adjustments we can go back. We can repeat last year and we can go further I think in the NCAA Tournament, but we have to want to be able to do that. We have to find the desire within ourselves and the confidence within ourselves to do that."

SUNY New Paltz is back on its home court Saturday against Fredonia State. Tip-off is scheduled for 2 p.m.  

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