New Paltz, NY — The State University of New York at New Paltz collected its second consecutive SUNYAC win Thursday night, defeating visiting Buffalo State, 60-35.
 
The Hawks (8-3 overall, 4-1 SUNYAC) had one of their best defensive games of the season, holding the Bengals (5-5, 2-2) to a season-low 35 points on 14-for-54 shooting from the field. The lowest point total they've had up until Thursday was 54 in a loss to SUNY Geneseo.
 
Katie Villarini led the way for Buffalo State with 18 points in 37 minutes, but no other Bengal scored more than three points in the outing. SUNY New Paltz, meanwhile, had another balanced night with four different players scoring at least seven points and five recording at least four rebounds in the win.
 
"Villarini is really good. She's been one of the best players in our league for years now," said Hawks coach Jamie Seward. "Cass [Deaver] did an excellent job on her, trying to take away what she does best and make her make tough shots, which she did. Like I said, she's really good. And then yeah, I thought we did execute the game plan on defense and made some adjustments to what we were trying to do on offense as well, so certainly happy about that."

Buffalo State hadn't played a game since Dec. 11 with its last four contests getting postponed. The time between games seemingly affected the Bengals as they got off to a rough start with SUNY New Paltz jumping out to a 20-9 lead after first 10 minutes. 
 
"They hadn't played for so long, so I'm sure that had a lot to do with it, but we practiced well this week, focused and having fun, so hopefully that becomes a trend," Seward said.
 
The Hawks took all of their momentum from a hard-fought road win last Saturday against The College at Brockport where they, due to COVID-19 protocols, only had eight players suit up for the game. SUNY New Paltz had most of its roster back and had one of its best weeks of practice of the season, which carried into a dominant performance over the Bengals.
 
"The energy going through the whole game was really high and that was one thing that we were really focusing on coming into this week," said Hawks junior guard Maddie Gillis. "Last week, we had eight [players] the whole week, whether it was at practice or during the game and everyone brought it last week… so having 13 we knew that we could step the energy up a lot higher and that's what we did tonight."
 
After taking an 11-point lead into the second, SUNY New Paltz extended its advantage to as many as 15 in the period, thanks to timely 3-pointers by Lexi Van Vorst, Gillis and Julia Sabatino. Riley Domin hit her only basket of the game on a 3-ball with a minute remaining to cut the difference to 12 at halftime with the Hawks leading, 31-19.
 
Buffalo State struggled finding a basket in the second half, making just six made shots in the final two quarters, including going 2-for-10 in the fourth. In turn, SUNY New Paltz broke the game open and rolled to a 25-point win. The closest the Bengals came to the lead was 13 to end the third quarter, thanks to a made layup in the final seconds by Villarini. The Hawks made sure to close out the fourth and scored 17 points on 6-for-17 shooting to put the game away.
 
"Tonight was definitely a team effort," Gillis said. "Anyone who came in brought a lot of energy and that's what we've really been working on. Jenny [Walton] came in and hit some good shots in the first half. Sabs had a lot of energy, and even finishing the game whoever subbed in they didn't give up many easy baskets and that's what we've been working on."
 
Gillis led the team with 13 points, five rebounds, four assists and a steal. Brianna Fitzgerald followed with 12 points, two rebounds, an assist and a team-leading three steals, while Graci Serravillo added nine points, four rebounds and two assists.
 
The Hawks are back in action Saturday when they complete their back-to-back home SUNYAC weekend against Fredonia at 2 p.m. in the Hawk Center.

Post-Game Interview with Maddie Gillis


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