New Paltz, NY — The State University of New York at New Paltz won its sixth-straight game Saturday after earning a 60-44 victory over visiting The College at Brockport.
 
Coming off one of their best defensive performances of the season Friday night, the Hawks continued the trend to open up the game against the Golden Eagles. They limited the visitors to long looks from the perimeter and kept them to just three made shots within the first 10 minutes. However, they in turn also struggled to finish around the rim and entered the second quarter holding on to a slim 14-12 advantage.
 
SUNY New Paltz had a poor start in the following period, suffering back-to-back turnovers and giving Brockport extra possessions on the offensive glass, which allowed the Golden Eagles to re-gain the lead following a 3-pointer with Erin Radack at 17-16. SUNY New Paltz went back ahead with four minutes left in the half thanks to a couple hustle plays by Lexi Van Vorst off the bench. Following two made free throws by the freshman, she and Philesha Teape led the Hawks in full court pressure after the Golden Eagles answered with another 3. They trapped Brockport's Nicole Leslie to force a turnover that gave Teape a look underneath, but her attempt hit off the rim. Van Vorst followed the shot and saved the ball from going out of bounds where she then kicked out a pass to teammate Olivia Badura for a made bucket from the perimeter. Marion Dietz added on two possessions later, and Van Vorst helped push the advantage to four after getting a steal on the ensuing play to earn a trip to the foul line. Chelsea Henry connected on one last shot in the final minute for Brockport to trim the Hawks lead to 24-22 at the break.
 
SUNY New Paltz kept the Golden Eagles to just seven made baskets in the half and forced 10 turnovers, while adding six steals. But, it also struggled on the offensive side of the floor, making 8-of-31, while also suffering 10 turnovers.
 
 
"At halftime we just really talked about the fact that we have to act more confident on offense," said Hawks coach Jamie Seward. "We got a number of shots that we should be able to make, and we've struggled in making those shots for a while now. Eventually it's discouraging on defense when you're playing that well. They had one shot in the first seven possessions of the game and they make that one and we're down, 3-2. We're totaling dominating the game, and yet we can't put the ball in the basket. Eventually it gets discouraging and we kind of just reminded them that we scored a lot earlier in the year and we just forgot that."
 
SUNY New Paltz went on an 11-1 run to start the third quarter. Good defense by Teape allowed Maddie Gillis to get out in front in transition following a Brockport turnover and the freshman capitalized with a bucket and foul for the and-1 play. After connecting on the free throw, she extended SUNY New Paltz's lead to 12. After the Golden Eagles got back on the board with a couple more points to trim the deficit to single digits, Gillis made sure to widen the gap, grabbing an offensive board off a Van Vorst missed 3 and draining a mid-ranged jumper to get the score to 37-27.
 
"I feel like recently my confidence has come out and that is just amping me up on the defensive end and the offensive end," Gillis said. "Definitely being able to be more active on defense has led me to be more aggressive on offense, and also making shots really helps."
 
After the Hawks went up, 40-31 to enter the fourth, Brockport grinded its way back in the game by getting to work on the glass. It picked up five offensive boards in the final 10 minutes, which allowed it to trim the lead to eight midway through the quarter. Paige Niemeyer helped stop the Golden Eagles momentum however, as the senior re-entered the game after toughing out an injury and stepped in to take contact to force a charge call. The Hawks capitalized on the other end of the floor with a made shot by Gillis from the perimeter and just like that, the difference went back up by double-digits.
 
SUNY New Paltz continued to play solid defense in the late stages of the game to hold on to the cushion. Van Vorst put one final dagger with another Hawks trey and the team sank their shots from the charity stripe in the final two minutes to secure the 16-point victory.
 
"We didn't get off to much of a start immediately in the second half, but then we found some things that worked with Maddie Van Pelt kind of running things through her," Seward said. "She made some shots, made some plays and had some assists, and then Maddie Gillis made a couple 3's and I think we had one little spurt that opened it up to 10 or 12 and just kind of kept it there the rest of the way. We had a couple let downs defensively, but we were able to overall defend well despite another very difficult offensive performance. Certainly, Brockport gets some credit for that as well, but we had some shots – not just today, but over the last few games that we need to make. Hopefully, we are able to start doing that and continue to defend as we have defended as well."
 
Gillis topped off arguably her best weekend as a Hawk with a career-high 16 points to lead all scorers, hitting 6-for-8 from the field, including 2-for-4 from behind the arc. She also added four rebounds, two assists and a steal on the day.
 
Gillis was also happy to have one of her best outings on a night where the team honored their four graduating seniors prior to the game in Van Pelt, Teape, Dietz and Niemeyer.
 
"It just felt so good to be able to help our seniors out," Gillis said. "They have done so much for us and have shown so much for us this season. They have been such great role models that we just want to do anything for them to help them get this win, and to have the best season and finish the best as possible."
 
Teape followed with 10 points, seven rebounds – four on the offensive glass -- and three steals. Van Pelt was a point shy from a double-double, finishing with nine points, 10 rebounds, two assists, three blocks and three steals, while Neimeyer and Dietz combined for 10 points, 11 rebounds, two steals, a block and a steal in a senior day win.
  "They're everything. They are our heart and soul. They are also our best players. They're our leaders," said Seward of his four seniors. "The thing is we graduated three really good players and two All-Americans [last season], some tremendous leadership and personalities and the thing that I kept coming back to over the offseason and what I kept thinking about this team was the four seniors. They deserve to be good. They are such hard-working, conscientious, accountable, responsible, reliable people. They've been that for us in a challenging situation when we have four seniors, then one junior and eight freshmen. To be able to take that group and not allow them to be held to a freshmen standard, because of the standard they set for themselves and held everyone to, it just speaks to the special people they are. I'm just lucky to have the opportunity to coach them for the last four years and hopefully get to do it for the next few weeks. We're going to savor every minute of every day with them, because they are a special, special group."
 
SUNY New Paltz has five regular season games remaining with eyes on the No. 1 seed in the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) Tournament. It's back on road against Fredonia and Buffalo State next weekend and then will have a pivotal re-match against SUNY Cortland Feb. 18 in its regular season home finale in the Hawk Center.
 
"This sweep on the weekend against Brockport and Geneseo is really, really good for us because our whole season has been based off of confidence and we have been playing well recently," Gillis added. "As long as our confidence is going up then we should just keep rolling."

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