Fredonia, NY — The State University of New York at New Paltz went on the road and collected its fourth SUNYAC win of the season Friday night, defeating hosting Fredonia 66-57.
 
"Fredonia plays hard and play the right way," said Hawks coach Keith Kenney. "They made us work for a tough road win."
 
With two minutes left in the first half the Blue Devils took a 24-22 lead, but SUNY New Paltz answered with a 3-ball by Brandon Scott and Lucas Seyoum to aid in a 28-26 lead at the break.
 
Rylan Blondo helped give the Hawks some breathing room to start the second half with a little pump-fake, step-back 3 to push the advantage to 31-26.
 
After a bad turnover on a cross court pass that led to an and-one for Fredonia, Lucas Seyoum answered for SUNY New Paltz, halting momentum for the Blue Devils as he swished from the perimeter to bring the score to 38-36 in favor of the Hawks. Fredonia called a timeout with more than 15 to play, and out of the break, SUNY New Paltz worked the ball around the Blue Devils' zone leading to a make from behind the arc from Blondo to give SUNY New Paltz a six-point advantage. Seyoum then hit again from the corner for 3 and extended SUNY New Paltz's cushion to eight before Blondo drove through the lane and got a tough shot to go to balloon the advantage to 10, leading to another Blue Devils timeout with still 13 minutes remaining.  
"Lucas has missed two weeks and really contributed with huge 3's in the second half," Kenney said. "It was great to have him back."
 
With the two teams trading baskets, Jonah Bevacqua hit a big 3 from the top of the arc on a kick out by Blondo with the Blue Devils collapsing inside, which extended SUNY New Paltz's lead to 55-43 with just less than nine minutes remaining. With a hand in his face, Seyoum connected again from 3-point range, hitting in the corner to push the Hawks to their largest lead up to that point at 58-43.
 
SUNY New Paltz then kept working inside, trying to feed Bevacqua underneath. RJ Meyers-Turner had a nice dish to Seyoum to push the lead to 15 before Tyreik Frazier earned a put-back a possession later to help with a 10-3 Hawks run. SUNY New Paltz then hung on from there as they kept Fredonia to just 57 points — a season-best defensively for SUNY New Paltz.
 
As a team the Hawks shot about 43 percent from the floor, but was efficient from behind the arc, hitting 10-of-19 attempts for a near 53 percent clip. Bevacqua was the catalyst, finishing with a season-high 17 points in 26 minutes, shooting 8-for-13 from the field with five rebounds and a block. Blondo and Seyoum followed with 13 points apiece, while Frazier added four points, nine rebounds, an assist and two blocks. Sean St. Lucia was critical in breaking down the Blue Devils' zone, as he dished out a season-high 11 assists to go along with a block, a steal and four points.
 
"Jonah was huge against their zone and was really aggressive around the rim and played great defense down on the other end," Kenney said. "Sean was huge against their zone, moving the ball and his 11 assists."
 
SUNY New Paltz look to stay atop the SUNYAC Saturday when it faces Buffalo State at 4 p.m.

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