New Paltz, NY — Intersession officially over, and the second half of the season remains. To cap the first half of its 2022-23 campaign, the State University of New York at New Paltz finished the weekend with two convincing victories on their home floor. The first over previous unbeaten SUNY Cortland, where the Hawks led all but three minutes of the game, and the second Saturday against an 11-7 Oswego State team.
 
SUNY New Paltz didn't ride the high of their win Friday night and instead dominated throughout 40 minutes Saturday afternoon and came away with a 74-47 victory over the visiting Lakers in the Hawk Center.
 
"Obviously yesterday was a huge win against Cortland. Our energy level was very high coming into today, so going into today's game against Oswego we just wanted to make sure that we put them away quick," said SUNY New Paltz senior forward Victoria Venus who contributed with nine points on a prefect 4-for-4 shooting performance with three rebounds and a block in an efficient nine minutes of action.
 
The Hawks (14-3 overall, 10-0) made sure to get out to a quick lead as Abby Korzekwinski created an eight-point advantage within the first two minutes on a put-back, which spurred four-straight baskets in the paint to push the lead to 14-2 at the first media timeout midway through the quarter.
 
 
Venus subbed in off the bench and helped SUNY New Paltz close out with a 20-7 cushion at the end of the period, working up and under on the block and then grabbing a physical defensive board on the opposite end, drawing a Lakers foul. She then had the last points of the quarter for the Hawks, scoring on a put-back with another tough rebound through traffic to push the score to 20-3.
 
Gabby Palladino contributed with five-straight points midway through the second to boost the difference to 20, as she hit from the corner for 3 before scoring inside off a feed by Brianna Fitzgerald to create a 33-11 advantage with five minutes to go. SUNY New Paltz ended the half on a 13-4 run and built a 41-15 cushion at the break.  
SUNY New Paltz flexed its advantage to 30 thanks to five-straight points by Jenny Walton, hitting a 3 following a steal and dish by Korzekwinski, then connecting in the lane after an offensive board by Graci Serravillo. Back-to-back 3's from Venus and Maddie Gillis with 3:30 to play pushed the Hawks ahead by 34, before Erin Cooney drained another trey off an assist by Stasia Epler to open up the fourth that gave SUNY New Paltz its largest lead of the game at 64-29.
 
The Hawks shot 42 percent from the floor and 33.3 percent (9-for-27) from 3-point range in the game, while getting most of their points underneath the hoop as they finished with 40 of their 74 points in the paint.
 
"Going into today's game, coach told me that no one on the inside can really guard well so the plan was to get the ball inside as much as we can," Venus said. "So whenever I got inside, I just tried my best to get to work and you know, got to get the 3 on the outside."
 
SUNY New Paltz also forced 27 Laker turnovers on 17 steals, scoring 25 points off said turnovers. Korzekwinski totaled a game-high three steals to go along with her eight points and five rebounds in 11 minutes of action. Cooney registered a team- and career-high 12 points on 5-for-9 shooting, while Fitzgerald and Palladino each finished with eight points apiece with Palladino registering a career-high in scoring off 3-for-4 shooting from the field and 2-for-2 from 3-point range. Fitzgerald also added a game-high six assists with three rebounds, two blocks and a steal in 17 minutes.
 
In their final four weeks of the regular season, the Hawks close out their home-and-home against SUNYAC competition beginning with a homestand against Buffalo State and Fredonia next weekend in the Hawk Center as they try to preserve their perfect SUNYAC mark and clinch the top seed in the conference tournament in February.
 
"Now that we have less practices because intersession is over, every practice we want to make sure that we're focusing on each day in and out," added Venus. "So, going into postseason play soon we just want to make sure each game we're focusing in on scout and following our game plan completely."

Post-Game Interview Featuring Victoria Venus

*******************
To stay up to date with everything #NPHawks be sure to follow us on Twitter at @nphawks, Instagram and Facebook at @newpaltzhawks, and subscribe to our Youtube channel, New Paltz Hawks.