Rochester, NY — The State University of New York at New Paltz women's basketball team had a tough time in the opening game of the University of Rochester Tournament Friday night, falling to the Yellowjackets, 83-66.

Both teams got off to a sloppy start, with each turning the ball over three times in the first minute and 15 seconds of the contest. The Hawks got off to the better start offensively, though, with Lexi Van Vorst hitting on a 3-pointer and Brianna Fitzgerald getting a layup to get SUNY New Paltz out to a quick 5-0 lead. Junior captain Maddie Gillis then connected on a three and hit a pull up jumper in consecutive possessions to swell the Hawks lead to eight at 10-2. Both Gillis and Van Vorst were instrumental in SUNY New Paltz having an 18-16 lead at the end of the first quarter, as Van Vorst had six points and Gillis 10. Gillis was very aggressive offensively, putting pressure on the Yellowjacket defense, and the Hawks were strong on the boards, with 11 in the first quarter, though they did have seven turnovers. 

Rochester completely flipped the script offensively in the second quarter, pouring in 26 points in the quarter to SUNY New Paltz's 11. 

The Hawks ran into foul trouble early in the quarter, with Fitzgerald picking up her third foul with 9:07 on the clock and Gillis and Van Vorst playing with two. The Yellowjackets took the lead on a Kat Jenks basket with 5:41 to go in the half, but Van Vorst responded with a 3 to put the Hawks back up, 25-24. Rochester answered with a 7-0 run that was sparked by freshman Jayda Starckey's six points. Gillis ended the unanswered stretch with a free throw, but the Yellowjackets responded in a big way, with back to back 3-pointers from guards Alexis Sestric and Hannah Lindemuth that put the home team in front 37-28.  

Lindemuth added another three before the end of the half, and Sestric scored once more to give Rochester a 42-29 halftime lead. The Hawks shot 11-of-39 in the first half, just 28 percent, and 5-of-19 from 3-point land, just 26 percent. The Yellowjackets shot 46 percent from the field and made four of their 10 3-point attempts in the opening half. They also went into the half with a 20-12 advantage in points in the paint. Gillis led the Hawks with 16 in the first half on 6-of-12 shooting, while Van Vorst had nine points on 3-of-13 shooting. Rochester maintained a balanced scoring attack in the opening half, with nine points from Sestric, eight from Jenks, and six from Starckey. 

Van Vorst hit a jumper to open the third quarter, but the Yellowjackets responded with a three of their own from Sestrick that gave Rochester a 47-33 lead. SUNY New Paltz then went on a quick 7-0 run that included five points from Gillis to cut the lead, 47-40. Lindemuth countered with a 3, which sparked a spurt for the hosts to them ahead, 54-43. The Hawks got as close as eight for the rest of the quarter, as Madison Mullman hit from 3 to make the score, 54-46, but Rochester pushed the lead back up to 11 by the end of the quarter, as Lindemuth scored on a layup at the buzzer to make the score, 65-54 Yellowjackets. 

The Hawks did their best to cut into the Rochester lead in the fourth, but whatever they did was answered by the home team. Sestric's bucket with 6:50 to go put them up 72-55, and the Yellowjackets ran away with the 17 point win. SUNY New Paltz made just 4-of-20 shots in the final quarter to Rochester's 8-of-17 shooting.

"We simply weren't aggressive enough, didn't play hard enough, and we had very poor attention to detail," said SUNY New Paltz coach Jamie Seward. "Any one of those things will get you beat on the road by a good team, and we did all three plus shot incredibly poorly." 

The poor shooting by the Hawks led to quality looks for the Yellowjackets, who had 19 fast break points to SUNY New Paltz's six, and the poor attention to detail was reflected in 17 turnovers (Rochester had 20). For the game, the Hawks shot just 28.4 percent, to the Yellowjackets 47 percent, and SUNY New Paltz took double the amount of 3's as its opposition (40), and made nine. Rochester also made nine, but shot only 20.

"Forty may be a bit on the high side, but they were nearly all high quality shots that we wanted to take," Seward said. "I thought the game called for us to be more aggressive shooting, but we also need to be more aggressive and far, far more efficient scoring the ball in the paint."  

Rochester was led in rebounding by Lindemuth, who finished with six and was crucial to their 50-47 rebounding edge. Lindemuth scored 22 points, leading her team, though they were also helped by Sestric, who had 18, and Jenks, who had 10. 

Gillis had a game-high 23 points, while adding seven rebounds, finishing 9-of-23 from the floor. Van Vorst was 5-of-19 shooting for 16 points, and Fitzgerald finished with 14 on 5-of-14 shooting. Abby Korzekwinski finished with a game-high 13 rebounds, with nine coming on the defensive glass. Mullman scored eight points off the bench in just seven minutes. Rochester had 32 bench points to the Hawks' 12.  

With the loss, the Hawks will play Saturday at 3 p.m., in the consolation game against The College of New Jersey, who lost to Southern Virginia, 60-56. 

"I'm hoping tomorrow that we can really come with a different mindset altogether," Seward said. "I'd really thought we'd play much better than this tonight, and obviously you have to give Rochester a lot of credit for that. But we need to be more aggressive, play a lot harder, and be able to understand and execute a game plan or nothing will change tomorrow."

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