New Paltz, NY —The State University of New York at New Paltz locked up a first round bye in the SUNYAC Tournament Saturday after defeating visiting Potsdam a 69-56 in the Hawk Center.
 
The win also marked the Hawks' 10th at home, as the team solidified an undefeated record on their home floor for the first time in program history, while the two-time defending SUNYAC Champions aslo secured a spot in the conference semifinals for the seventh-straight season.
 
"We certainly have had some issues on the road that we haven't had as much of at home, which I think speaks to being a young and inexperienced team. But, as I said to them, anytime you can do something that has never been done before, you have to be proud of it," said SUNY New Paltz coach Jamie Seward. "It was a little bit of a shortened home season, but we won every single one of those games regardless of how many it was and I think that's something to be proud of when we look back on the season, but hopefully we have some more things to accomplish and be proud of when it's all said and done."
 
The last time the Hawks faced the Bears was back on Dec. 3 with SUNY New Paltz struggling against Potsdam's zone defense and shot 36.2 percent and were forced into 19 turnovers in the loss. The hosts were prepared Saturday in their regular season finale, determined to knot up the series with playoff seeding on the line.
 
 
"We worked really hard in that game against them, but we weren't as good as we are now," said Hawks sophomore guard Brianna Fitzgerald. "I feel like we didn't focus on the scout as much as we did [Saturday] so I knew we were going to win going into this game, but I think it really made it more urgent the fact that we already lost to them and the fact that it was kind of like a playoff game. Not only for them, but for us kind of."
 
SUNY New Paltz got out to a 17-12 lead after the first quarter and only trailed in the opening minutes of the game following a 3 by Potsdam's Dyamon Hunter. The Hawks countered with seven unanswered points with Cassidy Deaver capping the run on a made corner 3 off a kick-out inside by Victoria Venus.

The Bears trimmed the difference to one early in the second, but SUNY New Paltz responded with a triple by Jenny Walton and then Lexi Van Vorst two possessions later with Maddie Gillis adding two more after an offensive rebound by Fitzgerald. Van Vorst hit another from behind the arc to push the cushion to nine with 3:15 left in the game, the largest margin of the half for the Hawks. The Bears earned two back to cut the score 30-23 at halftime.
 
"I think we played pretty well in the first half," Seward said. "We made a couple mistakes defensively, but I felt like for the most part we did a pretty good job and we got shots we wanted to get. They just weren't going in in the rates they should have been. They hit a couple shots contested late in the shot clock types that they made that was a little closer, but we didn't finish the half strong, and I thought we could have opened it up a little bit and we gave away a couple baskets and had a couple turnovers that they scored on."
 
Potsdam got as close as five with about seven minutes to play in the third, but SUNY New Paltz started opening the game up toward the end of the period and were carried by its stifling defense. In the final six minutes of the third, the Hawks allowed the Bears just two made baskets and forced them into three turnovers, while on the offensive end, the hosts continued to break through Potsdam's zone to earn good looks inside and on the perimeter. 
Abby Korzekwinski utilized her size inside and on back-to-back trips earned two shots from the charity stripe — where she hit on both — and earned two more in the paint to boost her team's lead to 10. Following a steal by Deaver on a strong halfcourt defensive stand by SUNY New Paltz, Korzekwinski was the benefactor, finishing in transition on an assist by Graci Serravillo pushing in transition.
 
Fitzgerald then extended the lead to 11 after making 1-of-2 from the foul line next time down the floor and another solid possession defensively led to a steal by Korzekwinski who ran the floor again and finished to push the lead to 13 with about 70 seconds to play.
 
"We didn't finish the half with a high level of alertness and so at halftime we just reinforced what we needed to do," Seward continued. "Not really any adjustments, just making sure that we understood that things they scored on weren't necessarily things that we were concerned about, but they missed a couple that we did make some mistakes on and we wanted to clean those things up. I think we came out and played some really good defense in the second half. To start the second half especially in the first five-six minutes of the game, there was one possession that culminated with Abby stealing the ball and scoring on a fast-break layup. That was really just excellent half-court defense."
 
Although the Bears got within 11 entering the third, SUNY New Paltz clamped down in the fourth and never relinquished its double-digit cushion. Van Vorst and Walton gave the Hawks their largest lead of the game at 16 after burying a pair of 3's with about 5:30 and 4:45 to play, respectively.
 
Potsdam started intentionally fouling with just more than a minute left and SUNY New Paltz iced the game at the line, making 4-for-6 in the final minute. The team ultimately finished 15-for-24 from the charity stripe.
 
The Hawks had four players finish in double-figure points, including Korzekwinski off the bench. The sophomore ended Friday night with a career-high 21 points and answered with 12 points, six rebounds, one assist and a steal in 19 minutes off the bench. Fitzgerald led the way with 15 points, nine rebounds, four assists, a block and a steal, while Van Vorst and Serravillo each registered 11 points. Serravillo added seven rebounds and two steals, while Van Vorst chipped in with two rebounds, three stelas and a block.
 
"The first time around we didn't have much zone offense in," Seward said. "It was really early in the season and we hadn't seen much zone at all up to that point, so we had a couple days of practice in zone offense and what we really tried against a zone we just weren't far enough along, so we tried do some different things that made it simpler but probably not nearly as affective and since then a lot of time has passed and we've had a lot of time to work on our zone offense and get better at it… I think we're a little bit more prepared for it this time around, but I think overall we were able to take advantage of our size around the basket and in the paint like last night as well as tonight, zone or man… We still got easy shots today around the basket."
 
SUNY New Paltz finishes the regular season 18-6 overall and 14-4 in the SUNYAC and will head to SUNY Cortland for its semifinal match against the winner of No. 3 seed Geneseo and No. 6 Fredonia.
 
"To be undefeated at home was great. We made history today. We've had some trouble on the road in the past, but we had the mindset that when we're at home, no one beats us on our home court," Fitzgerald said. "We have a different type of urgency at home for whatever reason, but I'm hoping we can carry that onto the road — we have to start carrying that onto the road.
 
"College basketball overall is very different from high school, and this is my first year, so I'm really excited to see the next step of urgency and excitement that playoff games come to, but it's my favorite type of energy. I can't wait to go play."

Highlights & Post-Game Interview with Brianna Fitzgerald


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