New Paltz, NY— The State University of New York at New Paltz earned a 48-35 win over visiting Oneonta Saturday to improve to 6-0 in SUNYAC play.

The Hawks (10-3 overall, 6-0 SUNYAC) will continue their, now seven, game winning streak and undefeated record in conference play. SUNY New Paltz has come out swinging since its two game losing streak back in November, and they do not plan on stopping now. 

The Hawks struggled in their first meeting against the Red Dragons back in November with a tough offensive night, but still pulled out the victory. Saturday was another low scoring affair, but they were galvanized by their signature swarming defense that kept Oneonta to season lows in points and shooting percentage, which helped capture the regular season sweep for the third-straight season. 

"That's the biggest part. We got the win and we got the sweep over them," said SUNY New Paltz coach Jamie Seward. "I was curious to see how far our offense has come because we kind of looked at that as the low point of the year at Oneonta and we felt like we were very fortunate to get a win that day in spite of our offense. It's been a lot better in practice and I kind of had a feeling it wasn't going to be translated as smoothly or as quickly into the game today and that's a product of Oneonta. They are an aggressive, physical team. They have some really tough players. Olivia Dobrovosky is as tough as they come. They make it really hard."

The Hawks had their back against the wall in the first quarter, only scoring one point in the first seven minutes of the game. It wasn't until Maddie Gillis sank a 3-pointer from deep to bring the energy back to the court to make it a four point differential. In the final minutes, SUNY New Paltz held a strong presence on the defensive end, holding Oneonta to only 12 points in the quarter. With a half court violation by Red Dragon, Nadia Brown, the Hawks stuck an intense layup in transition by Abby Korzekwinski to keep the fire alive. At the end of the quarter, SUNY New Paltz trailed 12-9, but came out strong in the second quarter with energy radiating off the Hawk's bench. They kept the Red Dragons scoreless throughout the quarter, advancing their play on a seven point run to end the half with a score of 16-12. 

"We didn't feel like we needed to make a ton of adjustments at halftime, we just felt like we needed to score a little bit better," Seward said. "We felt like we did a good job defensively and a pretty good job offensively. We got away from it when we struggled scoring, which sometimes is tough because you work hard in your offense to get a good shot and you miss it and you get three offensive rebounds, working really hard from an effort standpoint to get those rebounds. I think we just doubled down on our game plan going into the second half as well. The thing with our defense, when we do it right, it's constant. It may not have an impact on this play or the next play, but eventually it's going to wear you down and it's going to get to you."

At the start of the second half, SUNY New Paltz continued to set the tone. Within the first minute, Jenny Walton added another two to the board with a smooth layup out of transition. With 7:18 left in the third quarter, the Hawks went into a high press in the backcourt, leading to stellar anticipation by Korzekwinski to intercept the ball and score an effortless layup to continue the scoreless run for the Red Dragons. Following after, Oneonta called a timeout to collect themselves, returning to the court to put up an easy four points to make the score 25-16. To end the quarter, Brianna Fitzgerald hit a magnetic 3-pointer, and finishing points contributed by Lexi Van Vorst, Korzekwinski, and Gillis. 

Although Oneonta was able to gain some momentum during the third quarter, SUNY New Paltz held the score to a 36-22 game. The Hawks closed out the fourth carrying out their defensive presence, forcing three turnovers, with four rebounds from Korzekwinski alone in the final 10 period. The board remained stagnant for the opening three minutes until Serravillo hit from behind the line to create more distance for the Hawks. Serravillo was not the only one to sink from distance; Walton drained a shot from behind the arc to create a 15-point lead with five minutes left in the game. SUNY New Paltz finished the conference game with a score of 48-35.

"I definitely think it was going to be a good matchup," Korzekwinski said. "Last time we struggled with them, but we knew we were going to beat them… you know they'll try and fight back and play the hardest they can, which they did. They came out and played good, but you have to just keep fighting and we knew that we needed to win the fight."

SUNY New Paltz displayed their defensive dominance, ending the game with a total of 48 rebounds and 24 forced turnovers. They out-rebounded the Red Dragons, 48-33 in the game with a season-high 24 offensive boards.

"What I was most pleased with was that we got some really tough rebounds in traffic," Seward said. "Lexi had a really tough one over a bigger kid. Bri had a couple, Abby had a couple, Vickie [Venus] had a couple, Graci had one or two, Jenny had a couple — it was just some really tough defensive rebounds in traffic. That was really good to see and really happy to see that aggressive nature in the way we rebounded the ball on the defensive end, even though the numbers on the offensive end were phenomenal. I just liked the way we ripped some rebounds down out of people's hands in traffic."

Korzekwinski demonstrated her all around skill with 13 points, 10 rebounds — six of which were on the offensive end — two steals, a block and an assist to record her first career double-double, while matching a season-high in points. She was 6-for-10 from the paint and 1-for-2 from the free throw line, leading her team in the win.
"It's really important for us to gang rebound, but especially for me I know my job on the team is to get rebounds so I need to take pride in going up with two hands and pulling it down, and just getting every rebound," Korzekwinski said.

"Abby is such a reliable person," Seward added. "You know you can always count on her effort and her heart and soul being into whatever we're doing that day. You know you can rely on her to be there and put everything she's got into something. She finished pretty well around the basket today and got some good position."

Walton registered nine points, four rebounds — three offensive — and an assist. Fitzgerald and Serravillo followed offensively, both finishing with seven points. Fitzgerald had an impressive 13 rebounds, and Serravillo added five rebounds and three assists. 

SUNY New Paltz will hit the road for its first SUNYAC weekend of the New Year, facing Brockport Jan. 13 before taking on Geneseo Jan. 14. Tip-off is set for 5:30 p.m. and 2 p.m., respectively.

Post-Game Interview with Abby Korzekwinski

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