Cortland, NY — Two years in the making, through a lost 2020-21 campaign, COVID-19 protocols, the ups-and-downs of what a basketball season brings with the majority of the roster playing college basketball for the first time in their lives — through it all, the State University of New York at New Paltz women's basketball team came out on top.
 
Graduating most of its starters from its previous back-to-back run, the pressure was put on a new group to keep the standards high and provide the program its third consecutive SUNYAC title. On Saturday, the Hawks did just that.
 
In an exciting back-and-forth game that went down to the wire, SUNY New Paltz got the defensive stops it needed to hold off top-seeded Cortland, silence the Red Dragons home crowd and come away with a 66-63 victory.
 
"There was a lot of tears immediately after the game in the juniors in particular," said Hawks coach Jamie Seward. "There were all kinds of obstacles we were going to have to deal with, but their thing was, 'whenever, wherever, we're going to be ready to play. If the ball goes up, we're going to be ready to play' … I think that junior class did feel that burden of needing to uphold this and when we were struggling for a bit, they took it upon themselves and that's difficult for a 21-year-old person to deal with, but they embraced that. You can just see that emotional release and relief, but you can tell it was the culmination of a long journey and to win a conference championship you could see how much it meant to them on their faces."
 
 
The adversity they faced to get to Saturday at Corey Gymnasium for a chance at another SUNYAC Championship allowed them to fight through a tough game against the Red Dragons.
 
For most of the contest, the shots were falling for Cortland including at the buzzer. The momentum nearly shifted when the Red Dragons' Sarah Tully swished a desperation 3 at the end of the third quarter to push Cortland ahead entering the final 10 minutes. With the game being called tight as well, SUNY New Paltz faced early foul trouble including from leading scorer Lexi Van Vorst, who stepped up to lead the way with 19 points. But in the final stretches of the fourth quarter, the Hawks, like they have done throughout the final month of the regular season, tightened their defense and produced back-to-back defensive stands to close out a three-point game.
 
"We really did answer. They showed a real maturity beyond their age," Seward said. "They're not inexperienced. They've played 25 games now, but it's a little different when you get into this kind of environment. I just thought the poise and resiliency they showed — and I think that resiliency is a product of everything they had to handle over the course of the last two years. To have an entire season pulled out from underneath them, to have people in and out of the lineup with COVID protocol this year, losing some games on the road early and throughout the year — but to overcome all of that, I think it set us up with that same adversity of a high intensity of a postseason game. I thought the poise and resiliency was a testament to the team's toughness. That's what we try and take pride in, in recruiting the toughest kid that we can, and I think that certainly helped us." 
Van Vorst was hot from the start of the game and produced nine of her final 19 points in the first seven minutes of action to help the Hawks to an 18-11 lead in the first. Cortland came back to rattle off six-straight points, however, and trimmed the difference to one entering the next 10 minutes of action.
 
The Hawks started the second quarter strong, forcing turnovers on back-to-back plays, first on a block by Brianna Fitzgerald and then a charge on Cortland's Nyia Longford next time down the floor, which helped extend their lead to 22-17 following two successful drives to the hoop by Fitzgerald and Jenny Walton off the bench.
 
But, with the game called tight, SUNY New Paltz was at the demise of the foul sheet, as Van Vorst was forced to sit after getting charged with her second early in the period. The Red Dragons took advantage of their trips to the foul line and ultimately tied the game at 24 following makes by Casey Travers and Shannon McGuire.

Fitzgerald was called on her second foul shortly after and Cortland was in the bonus with almost six minutes left in the half. The two made shots from the line gave the Red Dragons the lead, but Victoria Venus answered for the Hawks on a nice turnaround jumper in the paint to tie the game midway through the period.

The Hawks struggled finding the bottom of the hoop for the remainder of the half. They missed 11 of their last 14 shots to end the period and finally put an end to a Cortland four-point run following a pair of made free throws by Maddie Gillis to trim the deficit to 30-26. Gillis hit SUNY New Paltz's first basket since the 5:23-minute mark with less than a minute to play, but the score was huge to bring some momentum back to the Hawks as she finished a tough and-1 to cut the lead to 32-31, which remained until the end of the half.
 
Cortland continued to take advantage of the tight calls in the second half and extended its lead to five until Fitzgerald answered with a much-needed 3-pointer to trim the deficit to two with seven minutes to play in the period. Travers hit from the corner for 3 to ignite the Red Dragons bench and home crowd, but SUNY New Paltz immediately responded with a driving layup by Van Vorst who took the contact and the foul to earn the traditional three-point play. Following the make on the free throw, the game was tied at 41, but the Red Dragons earned another trip to the charity stripe where they hit both to take a two-point advantage. 
Although the Hawks didn't have their best shooting performance, they hit timely shots from the perimeter when they needed to. Graci Serravillo knocked down her only trey of the game with 2:46 to go to answer a swish from the perimeter by Cortland. Van Vorst then drained another open 3 to bring the deficit to one. Following a defensive stop, SUNY New Paltz got out in transition with Korzekwinski the benefactor in gaining her team a 51-50 lead with 1:22 to go in the quarter. However, just before the period ended, Tully snatched back the lead for the Red Dragons after swishing a last-second heave as the buzzer sounded to push the score, 53-51 in favor of the home team.
 
The Hawks made sure to not let the final shot sway momentum at the start of the fourth, as Van Vorst silenced the crowd after the highlight play to end the quarter and immediately got to the foul line, hitting both ensuing attempts, to knot the score at 53. Korzekwinski made a play on a bad pass by Cortland next time down the floor and then was rewarded with a pass inside where she finished and re-upped SUNY New Paltz's advantage by two. Van Vorst was forced to sit with 8:15 left after getting charged with her fourth following an offensive foul and the Red Dragons capitalized by hitting on their next two to take a 59-58 lead. Again, though, the Hawks put down clutch shots to take back control. Gillis this time stepped up to hit back-to-back 3's and lift her team to a 61-59 advantage with just more than five minutes to go.
 
"Maddie Gillis is an incredibly talented player, but she had some growing to do," Seward said. "The ball was in her hands so much this year… and I think the rest of the year was about her learning to play without the ball and she doesn't need that in her hands. That's my fault if anything because of what we needed from her early in the year, but yeah, she made a couple huge shots, huge 3's there and came up with some big rebounds as well. She was a huge part of finishing out that game and giving us that win."

A jump ball extended a Cortland possession that resulted in two points by Nia Longford to knot the game at 61. After the Red Dragons regained the lead, Gillis forced a tough shot on the defensive end that led to a huge make from Fitzgerald, finishing underhand while taking contact in-between two defenders to push SUNY New Paltz up by two with less than three minutes left.
 
SUNY New Paltz once again stood its ground defensively with Gillis getting her hands on the ball to force a jump ball with the possession arrow pointing toward the away bench.
 
Although the Hawks couldn't capitalize with points, they ate time off the game clock. Julia Siler tried driving to the hoop to tie the game for Cortland, but her attempt rimmed off basket. Maggie Malone grabbed the offensive board, but she couldn't finish with hands in her face as her attempt careened off the rim. This time, Gillis grabbed the board to end the possession. With 12 seconds left and down by two, the Red Dragons were forced to intentionally foul and put Gillis on the line. After missing her first, the junior netted her second to create a three-point difference with about 11 seconds left.
 
Out of timeout, the Red Dragons put the ball in the hands of Travers who drove to the hoop, but once again couldn't connect through traffic. Fitzgeald snatched the defensive board to make sure to end the play and half a second remained with the game officially out of reach for Cortland.
 
"Up three, we're obviously not trying to give up a 3 with only 11 seconds left and we had a pretty good idea of what they were going to do and defended the elevator [screen] really well, Maddie fought through it and then they had to try and get to the basket and by that time, even if they scored, there's only a couple seconds left," Seward recalled. "We didn't defend well over the course of the entire game today. We did come up with some timely stops throughout the game, particularly late in the game there to secure the win."
 
 
Fitzgerald who finished with 17 points (7-15), seven rebounds, three assists and a block was named tournament MVP. Van Vorst and Gillis were both named to the SUNYAC All-Tournament team as well with Van Vorst making 5-for-11 in the game, including 7-for-7 from the foul line. Gillis finished with 12 points, nine rebounds, two assists and two steals.
 
"I've recruited Lexi for a long time and the thing that I've always said from the time she was a sophomore in high school, and the thing I've always loved about her is that she's not scared," Seward said. "She's not scared of the moment. She's shown that throughout different times in her career even before she's probably ready to succeed in those moments, but she's not afraid to be in those moments and have the ball in those moments. Sometimes she tries to do a little too much, but she's such a fearless player. She was tremendous today, playing through foul trouble and making big shots, attacking the basket. She got to the foul line a ton today. She drew a number of fouls and played a fearless game, and that's not surprising because she's a fearless player.
 
"Another kid who's fearless. Bri is one of those rare kind of players who wants the pressure and wants the ball in those situations," Seward said. "But like Lexi, is fearless and plays so hard with such a nastiness and a toughness. Coming up with some of those rebounds where she wasn't even really involved in the play, but she continued to pursue and got herself in position where if we didn't come down with it cleanly or they didn't come down with it cleanly, then here comes Bri coming out of nowhere snatching the ball. She's a phenomenal athlete, but what makes her who she is her toughness."
 
The Hawks shot less than 40 percent in the game but had their best day by far from the foul line all season. They entered the game shooting 59 percent and averaging just nine attempts per game, and on Saturday was clutch from the line, making 15-of-16 attempts.
 
"We also made 15 out of 16 free throws and I told anyone who wanted to listen — and I didn't necessarily believe it myself — but I said we'll make them when it counts. We'll make it when we need to and we needed them and made 15 out of 16 today and we needed them all," Seward said. "I think we're still improving. Our offense has gotten better in the last couple weeks. It wasn't very good [in the semifinals], but credit to Geneseo they're a very good defensive team, and today our offense looked really good at times. I think defensively we've been really good the last six to eight weeks and I think we'll be a tough team to contend with. I'm not saying we're going to be favorites in any game we play, but somebody will have to beat us."
 
The win improves the Hawks to 20-6 overall, notching their third-straight 20-win season, while garnering their fifth conference crown in six seasons — second straight over Cortland in the finals — third consecutive and sixth overall. The victory also solidifies the team's third-straight NCAA appearance with an automatic bid into the tournament.

"When we lost at Cortland and had a tough game at Oswego that we were able to pull out the next day and we were dealing with some adversity at that time," said Seward.  "I was out with COVID for the first couple days that following week and we had traveling issues the following week, the postponement of those games and somewhere after that Buff State loss I think they came together through the COVID stuff, but they really started to have a really different level of enthusiasm at that point.
 
"Basketball season is such a long grind that it's really difficult to improve that last month of the season, because the things that you need to improve on are really little things that are detail oriented that you have to be disciplined in order to improve upon. In order to do that, after four and a half months of being mentally and emotionally worn down, you have to have a great amount of enthusiasm. That's the only thing that gives you a chance. It doesn't guarantee it by any means, but it gives you a chance. These guys came back with a ton of enthusiasm every day and credit to them that gives them a chance to improve, and we started to make those improvements. Those minor, detail-oriented improvements that are the difference in a one-possession game against a really good team."

SUNYAC Championship Second Half Highlights


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