For the State University of New York at New Paltz men's basketball team, the season all comes down to the next two weekends.
 
Playing their final two regular season home games in the friendly confines of the Hawk Center, the Hawks host Geneseo on Friday evening and SUNY Brockport on Saturday afternoon before completing their regular season with a trip to the North Country the following weekend. All four games has significant implications on postseason aspirations for SUNY New Paltz.
 
"We know where we are and where we can be as a team," said Hawks senior guard Brandon Scott. "We just got to be able to put into a good, solid 40 minutes of just playing hard and playing every possession like it's our last."
 
Friday evening the Knights of Geneseo come to town sporting an overall record of 10-11 and a SUNYAC record of 7-7, sixth place in the conference standings. SUNY New Paltz last met on the Knights Jan. 23 at Geneseo's Schrader Gym, where the hosts eked out a 66-65 win over the visiting Hawks to increase their series record over SUNY New Paltz to 49-25. Last weekend, Geneseo hosted Plattsburgh on Friday evening, losing to the Cardinals 76-72 but bounced back Saturday afternoon to edge the Potsdam Bears 74-70.
   
The Knights are averaging 65.9 points per game as a team, while allowing 72.3 points against and have been out-rebounded on the year, 35.1-37 per game. They are recording about six steals and two blocks per game and totaling 15.3 points off opponents' turnovers.
 
Leading the Knights is SUNYAC Player of the Week, Cole Kattan (Scarsdale, NY). Over the course of three games last week, Kattan averaged 25.7 points and 10 rebounds per game. On the season the 6-foot, 2-inch junior guard is averaging 15.8 points and 6.3 rebounds per game with 45 assists. Against the Hawks in the first meeting, he scored 18 points with five rebounds.
 
Following offensively is sophomore guard Sebastain Pacheco (6'0, White Plains, NY) averaging 10.2 points and 4.4 rebounds per game with 24 steals. Senior guard Raymond Grabowski (6'2, East Setauket, NY) is hitting for about nine points and two rebounds per game, and against the Hawks led his team with 19 points and two rebounds.
 
"Geneseo, they run a lot of intricate sets. They cut a lot. They're a very deliberate team. There is no wasted movement with them, so we just got to make sure we're locked in," Scott said.
 
The Hawks close out their final home regular season weekend Saturday against SUNY Brockport, which sits second in the conference standings. The Golden Eagles defeated SUNY New Paltz on its home court a month prior in a tight game, 82-79, giving Brockport an all-time series lead of 55-14 over the Hawks.
 
Brockport currently stands at 17-4 overall with a 12-2 SUNYAC record. In its outing last weekend, it defeated Potsdam, 67-58 and Plattsburgh, 67-66 at home. The Golden Eagles are averaging 75.1 points per game while limiting opponents to 65.4 points per game. They are out-rebounding their opponents 40.9-35.7, average 8.1 steals and 4.9 blocks per game and have scored 16.5 points off of opponents' turnovers.
 
"For Brockport, they're a really athletic team," Scott added. "They're fast and they have some very talented players as well, so we just got to be able to play our man and just play as a team and get a W."
 
Tops offensively for Brockport is two-time SUNYAC Player of the Week, sophomore guard/forward Mekki Beckett (6'3, Westbury, NY). Beckett is averaging 17.5 points and five rebounds per game with 10 blocks. Against SUNY New Paltz in January, he scored 18 points with five rebounds.
 
Next for the Golden Eagles is First-Team All-SUNYAC senior guard Jahadi Wallace (6'2, Troy, NY), who enters the weekend averaging 13 points and 4.9 rebounds per game with 13 blocks; against the Hawks he scored 13 points with seven rebounds. Senior forward David Grady III (6'5, Brooklyn, NY) averages 12.6 points and 8.2 rebounds per game with a team high 52 blocks. In January he scored 23 points with seven rebounds over the Hawks. Sophomore guard Tony Arnold (6'1, Rochester, NY) rounds out Brockport's offensive leaders, as Arnold is recording 11.5 points and 5.2 rebounds per game, while leading the Golden Eagles in assists with 75 and steals with 54. Arnold put up 27 points and five rebounds against SUNY New Paltz in their first meeting.
 
Despite coming off a pair of losses, SUNY New Paltz regrouped and had an impressive performance Tuesday night as they took on No. 15 ranked Williams College (MA) on the road. The Hawks gave the 20-3 Ephs a run, leading at the half and throughout most of the second before falling by six, 63-57.
 
For the season, SUNY New Paltz is scoring 75.3 points per game, while yielding 75.5 points per game to its opponents. The Hawks pull down about 36 boards per game, compared to 38 for their opposition and are averaging more than eight steals and four blocks per game, scoring 17.1 points per game off opponent turnovers.
 
Leading the scoring for SUNY New Paltz continues to be junior guard Rylan Blondo (6'0, Brooklyn, NY) who is totaling 16 points and 4.5 rebounds per game with 71 assists and 39 steals. Against Geneseo in January he scored 23 points with seven rebounds and had 15 points with five rebounds against Brockport. Following him is senior forward Isaiah Bien-Aise (6'5, Westbury, NY) with 9.8 points and 5.1 rebounds per game. In January against Brockport, he scored 12 points with a career-high 18 rebounds. Junior forward Lucas Seyoum (6'5, Clifton Park, NY) is totaling 8.6 points and 3.3 rebounds per game; against Geneseo he scored nine points with six rebounds. Junior forward Tyreik Frazier (6'6, Westbury, NY) averages eight points and 3.7 rebounds per game with a team-leading 33 blocks. Junior guard Sean St. Lucia (6'2, Niskayuna, NY), whose brother Ethan plays for Geneseo, leads the Hawks with 90 assists, while averaging 7.4 points per game. Scott (6'3, Mt. Vernon, NY) rounds out the offensive leaders for SUNY New Paltz, as the senior is totaling 7.7 points per game on the year and had eight points and five rebounds against Geneseo, and scored a career-high 20 points, while pulling down five rebounds against Brockport in January.