New Paltz, NY — Boasting the experience of its four seniors that played through countless tight contests, conference championship games and NCAA tournaments, the State University of New York at New Paltz was not deterred when faced with a slight two-point deficit against SUNY Cortland Tuesday night with a few seconds left.
The potential of the No. 1 seed was on the line with the Red Dragons (19-4 overall, 13-3 SUNYAC) already claiming a win over the Hawks (20-3, 15-1) earlier in the season, but the hosts didn't have any doubts about a comeback looming.
Paige Niemeyer forced overtime with clutch free throws with 3.8 seconds left, and
Marion Dietz put the finishing touches on a 74-68 overtime victory, scoring eight of her team's final 12 points to secure the win.
"This game was all about who was tougher on the defensive end and when it came down to it we had to dig in deep and get stops, and just continually get stops," Dietz said. "We had a couple balls that didn't bounce our way, but we just knew we had to keep going and knew that eventually we would get the ball to bounce our way."
SUNY New Paltz was carried by its four seniors. Dietz had one of her best performances this season on both ends, defending the Red Dragons' leading scorer in Beth Bonin, while also finishing with a game-high.
Maddie Van Pelt followed offensively and hit a clutch 3-pointer with less than five minutes to go that helped her team back in the game, while Niemeyer netted the game-tying points at the foul line and
Philesha Teape secured key rebounds in both halves, which were pivotal in the win.
"I feel like sometimes in games like that I'm not really coaching, because I'm not doing a whole lot because I know these guys have been in hundreds of these games," said Hawks coach
Jamie Seward. "There are very few players who have more experience in the entire country than those seniors. It was a game that was going to come down to who made a couple of plays. If that was making some shots or getting to the free throw line and making some free throws or coming up with defensive rebound or a deflection, and getting us an extra possession or preventing them from having one. And so, you kind of sit back and trust your players and they made some plays, and made enough plays to get us home a winner."
Gallery: (2/18/2020) Women's Basketball vs. Cortland 2/18/20
After opening up the game with an early 7-2 lead, Cortland tied the score at 7-, and then 9-all before taking its first lead midway through the first period when Bonin connected on an and-1 at the rim to push her team ahead, 10-9. The Hawks stayed active on the defensive end and forced the Red Dragons' Shannon McGuire into back-to-back turnovers that allowed them to take a 17-12 lead after first 10 minutes of action.
Olivia Badura forced the first turnover, picking the pocket of McGuire near mid-court to earn an easy bucket on the other end of the floor. Teape then picked a McGuire pass off SUNY New Paltz's ensuing full court press to lay-in a quick two in transition to help the hosts to a four-point cushion entering the second.
Cortland shot an efficient 7-for-12 in the following period, which allowed them to get back in front. Sara Tully pushed the Red Dragons ahead after two made free throws, but Dietz tied the score at 28 after she earned a trip to the line and made both. McGuire connected on a jumper with less than 45 seconds remaining to give Cortland a 30-29 advantage, but the Hawks had the last say of the half with Teape snatching an offensive board off a Dietz shot, laying in the put-back to give her team a 31-30 halftime lead.
SUNY New Paltz worked its way out of an eight-point deficit late in the third, ending the quarter with a 7-0 run.
Maddie Gillis got the stretch started, earning a trip to the line following a steal by Van Pelt who added on two more points following a defensive stop. Van Pelt capped off the surge with a swish from the perimeter to cut the score, 45-44 entering the fourth.
The lead exchanged hands six times in the last 10 minutes of regulation with Badura tying the score at 55 after getting on the other end of an outlet pass by Van Pelt who secured the defensive board off a miss by Bonin. Badura answered after another Bonin bucket on the ensuing play, making the front end of a pair of free throws with about 1:30 remaining. McGuire then connected on a 3-pointer for Cortland to push the visitors back in front, but Dietz immediately responded for the Hawks. The senior got the ball in her hands, attacked the basket and finished with the bucket and foul to tie the game at 60 after completing the traditional 3-point play.
With less than a minute ticking down, Tully found some space and drove through the paint for a quick two to put Cortland back up by a basket. The Hawks gave the ball back following a turnover on the ensuing possession and Van Pelt was called on a reach against Bonin, suffering her fifth with less than 40 seconds to go. Bonin couldn't connect on either attempt, however, and Gillis picked up the rebound, which was followed by a SUNY New Paltz timeout. After a failed attempt by Dietz driving again to the hoop, the ball stayed with the Hawks off a deflection. Teape earned a look out of the inbounds play underneath, but did not connect. Niemeyer got up and grabbed a tough offensive board off the miss, getting hacked on the way down to earn a trip to the line and an opportunity to tie the game for her team. The senior calmly drained both attempts and undoubtedly knotted the game up at 62 to force overtime.
"We never think we're out of a game even if we're down by 20 or 30. So I think our mentality was just, 'OK let's just grind this out, stick with our game plan and just keep going at it,'" Dietz said. "Going into the fourth quarter and overtime, we just wanted to pound the ball inside and attack the offensive boards, and I think we did a pretty good job of doing that."
Bonin got the overtime started, banking a long-distance trey to put the Red Dragons up initially, but the Hawks' defense took over from there and kept Cortland from scoring another basket.
Dietz continued to stay aggressive and got to the line to net the go-ahead points for her team. Cortland led briefly mid-way through the period, as Niemeyer was called on a touch foul on an attempted steal. Tully made 1-of-2 to give the Red Dragons a one-point advantage, but that was the last lead they saw. Dietz countered with another and-1 on the other side of the floor and following a defensive stop, was put back on the free throw line and sank both. The teams traded attempts at the line, but SUNY New Paltz iced the win with Dietz, Teape and Badura combining to make 4-of-6 from the charity stripe in the final 30 seconds.
Cortland made 43 percent from the floor after shooting more than 58 percent in the first half, but were forced into 25 turnovers with the Hawks registering 14 steals and 18 points off turnovers. Bonin was kept at about her season average with 19 points and made 7-for-15 from the field, but was limited to just 2-for-8 from 3-point range.
"I think we did a really good job [defensively]. Bonin is really, really good. She didn't get a lot of shots," Seward said. "I think they were trying to go to her pretty much the entire second half. We did a good job of not allowing her to get to her spots and not having some clean looks. She maybe made a couple that we did give up, but she made a couple tough ones at the same time. She is a good player. She is going to do that, and they have a couple other kids that made a couple plays and make a couple shots that weren't easy either. I think overall we forced enough turnovers, got some easy baskets in the first half when we were struggling to score, forcing some turnovers and I think that kept us in the game. Then we were able to get a handful of stops there in the fourth quarter and really overtime that helped us get the lead and kept us with the lead."
Dietz was the catalyst for her team, finishing with 27 points after making 7-of-16 from the floor and 13-of-14 from the foul line, while adding six rebounds and three steals in a full 45 minutes of action. Van Pelt followed with 20 points (7-12), five rebounds and a team-high five steals, while Teape added eight points, a team-high 10 rebounds and three steals in 23 minutes off the bench.
"[Dietz] did the heavy lifting on Bonin too. She got a lot of help and everybody was ready to switch out and help when they needed to, but she had to expend a lot of energy guarding her," Seward said. "To still have enough left in the tank to get to the basket like she did, and get to the foul and knock down almost all her free throws — I think she wasn't settling. A couple times, I thought, 'knock that down.' and then she would make a play and get to the basket. She wanted the ball inside. She wanted the ball in her hands late in the game and she really stepped up and played like the player that we need her to be. That is great moving forward and now she has had a couple great games. Hopefully, we can say she's past that little mid-season slump, but she came together at the right time."
The win notches the Hawks their second-straight 20-plus win season, and more importantly puts them a victory away from clinching the top seed in the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) tournament for the second consecutive year. They have two more regular season games left, as they hit the road to face Plattsburgh State and SUNY Potsdam over the weekend.
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