New Paltz, NY — The State University of New York at New Paltz played a close game against visiting SUNY Cortland Tuesday night in its home finale in the Hawk Center and put itself in position to pull an upset over the Red Dragons (16-7 overall, 10-6 SUNYAC), trimming its deficit to four down the stretch. However, the Hawks (5-18, 1-15) couldn't come up with the go-ahead bucket and suffered a 78-71 loss.
 
SUNY New Paltz honored its four seniors in Tristan Wissemann, Scott Reisert, Nick Arthur and Matt English prior to the game, and all four contributed right away. The four combined for 27 of the Hawks' 37 first-half points, while Arthur came up with a few big blocks down the stretch in the second half to help turn momentum toward the hosts that aided in a 13-point rally.
 
"I thought our seniors played really well," said SUNY New Paltz coach Keith Kenney. "They did lead the way. I thought Matt had really good minutes and Nick, he had been hurt lately, but played really good minutes and blocked some shots. Tristan and Scott obviously played great and honestly, I thought we played really well. We just couldn't hit those handful of shots down the stretch, but we got the shots that we wanted and it didn't fall. But, we defended a team that scores a lot of points really well I thought, and we just didn't get the scores when we needed, but I thought we played really well."
 
 
The Red Dragons ended the first half with a 10-4 run to stretch their cushion to 12 entering the following 20 minutes of play. They pushed their advantage to as many as 13 early in the half, but Wissemann guided a rally that trimmed the difference to four midway through the period.
 
After a good basket in the paint by English, Wissemann got his team within nine after earning a steal and finishing with a fast-break bucket to cut the score, 61-52 with about 12 minutes left. Reisert added on with a strong move to the rim, grabbing his own rebound for a put-back to get the difference to seven. RJ Meyers-Turner then put the Hawks within four after knocking down a corner 3 off an assist from Wissemann.
 
However, SUNY New Paltz couldn't get closer than four as the Red Dragons built back an eight-point cushion. Meyers-Turner cut the score to four twice down the stretch, off a trey with four minutes left and again with a driving layup a minute later. The Hawks went scoreless for a two-minute stretch to close out the game and Cortland pulled away with a couple key baskets down the stretch despite missing six attempts from the foul line. Wissemann finished with a team-high 24 points on 10-for-21 shooting from the field, while pulling down 10 rebounds to register his second double-double on the season. Reisert finished with his fifth double-double of the year after pulling down a career-high 16 rebounds to go along with 12 points (6-17). English and Arthur combined for eight points, six rebounds, two assists and five blocks, while Meyers-Turner followed Wissemann offensively with 17 points on 7-for-18 shooting from the field with three rebounds and three assists.
 
"It is always good to not give up and keep fighting, and that is kind of what we have been preaching," Kenney said. "It is not the year we wanted, but we have to compete in these games and that's all that matters. I thought they did today and hopefully we can finish out the week doing that same thing."
 
SUNY New Paltz concludes the regular season on the road Friday and Saturday when it takes on Plattsburgh State and SUNY Potsdam, respectively.

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