Cortland, NY — After working its way out of a double-digit deficit, the State University of New York at New Paltz needed just one more stop to claim its eighth conference win Friday night at Corey Gymnasium. 

Cortland needed to go the length of the floor in 6.7 seconds to either tie or win at the buzzer. The Hawks full court pressed and made the Red Dragons life difficult trying to move the ball closer to their basket. Cortland never looked comfortable as soon as it in-bounded with SUNY New Paltz smothering its ball-handlers and ultimately trapping at the edge of the sideline to force a contested desperation attempt at the buzzer that fell short of the hoop to close out with the 73-71 win.
 
After getting out to a 47-40 lead to start the second half, the Red Dragons out-scored the Hawks 27-7 in the following 11 minutes which included a 13-0 run that helped the hosts gain their largest lead at 67-54 with less than seven minutes to play. However, following a timeout by SUNY New Paltz coach Keith Kenney, the team regrouped and started chipping away. Bien-Aise started the rally earning an and-1 out of the timeout and Sean St. Lucia followed after a defensive stop by the Hawks on one end, by getting to the line himself and sinking both to sever the double-digit difference. Following free throws by the Red Dragons, SUNY New Paltz answered with an 11-0 run highlighted by a 3-pointer from St. Lucia to tie the game at 68 and a pull up jumper by Rylan Blondo to push SUNY New Paltz ahead, 70-68 with 2:18 to play. Cortland came back to re-take the lead one last time at 71-70, but the Hawks kept the Red Dragons scoreless from there making three consecutive stops. 
Kareem Lubin helped give the Red Dragons the late lead after Lucas Seyoum was called on a foul on a tight call and was hit with a technical afterward, which gave the Red Dragons four shots from the foul line. Lubin connected on both his attempts to tie the game at 70 with two minutes left, but Riley McEvoy hit 1-of-2 during his trip to the charity stripe. Dakoda Smith picked up the rebound off the miss and handed the ball off to Hawks season leading scorer Rylan Blondo who earned a trip to the line, where he connected on 1-of-2 to tie the game. Austin Grunder, who had a monster night, scoring a game-high 39 points, missed a look from mid-range for the Red Dragons to keep the stalemate. St. Lucia then gave SUNY New Paltz the lead with 21 seconds remaining, beating his man baseline and hitting a clutch reverse-layup to push his team ahead, 73-71.
 
With 20.2 to play, Isaiah Bien-Aise made a nice play to get a hand on pass and record a steal with Cortland fouling immediately to stop the clock. Bien-Aise was sent to the foul line where he missed the one-and-one, leading to a controversial call on the loose ball with the hosts granted a timeout with 6.7 seconds to play.
 
"Proud that we didn't give up, just chipped away with stops and scores and pulled it out when we didn't play our best," Kenney said. "We got timely stops down the stretch. Rylan and Sean made clutch plays down the stretch. They didn't lose their cool and made the right plays."

The Hawks held a tight 42-40 lead at halftime in a back-and-forth opening 20 minutes. Grunder was the story of the first half, though, as the 6-foot-6-inch center had 17 points in 10 minutes and finished with 25 in the half after shooting 9-for-14 from the floor in 19 minutes. SUNY New Paltz did a good job on the prolific junior in the second half, limiting him to 14 points.
 
"We had no answer for most of the game with Grunder," Kenney said. "Dakoda Smith came in and did a really nice job on him and defensively, gave us a big boost. We tried to deny him the ball and show more help with him [in the second half]."
 
Solomon Neuhaus led SUNY New Paltz with 19 points, shooting an efficient 7-for-11 in 18 minutes. Blondo followed with 18 points, hitting 7-for-14 attempts from the floor, while pulling down six rebounds. St. Lucia added 13 points, six rebounds and a team-leading five assists.
 
SUNY New Paltz improved to 11-6 overall and 8-3 in the SUNYAC with the victory and will face conference unbeaten and No. 22 nationally ranked Oswego State Saturday at 4 p.m.

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