New Paltz, NY — For the fourth straight season, and fifth time in six years, the State University of New York at New Paltz is headed back to the SUNYAC Championship title game.
 
The top seeded Hawks (23-3 overall, 18-0 SUNYAC) opened the conference tournament against No. 4 Geneseo (19-8 overall, 13-5 SUNYAC) in the SUNYAC Semifinal round Friday night in the Hawk Center and knocked off the Knights with a comfortable, 76-59 victory.
 
SUNY New Paltz had its most efficient scoring game of the season, shooting above 47 percent from the floor and got out hot to open up the game. Jenny Walton scored eight of the 10 points in a 10-0 run for the Hawks to start the game with the Knights being held scoreless until the 6:32 mark of the first quarter. And after Geneseo went on a mini 6-0 run of its own, SUNY New Paltz ended the quarter on a 17-2 run with Walton scoring 14 points in the 10 minutes with three steals and helped in a 4-for-8 output from behind the arc.
 
"We were able to get to the basket and we shot the ball really well behind the arc, that always makes things look a little cleaner and smoother than it probably otherwise was," said SUNY New Paltz coach Jamie Seward.  
 
Geneseo trimmed a 15-point lead to nine in the following quarter. The two teams traded 3's to start the period with Lexi Van Vorst knocking down back-to-back treys to push the lead to 16 before Brianna Fitzgerald aided in the Hawks' largest lead of the half at 18 following a make from the paint on a dish by Walton.
 
 
The Knights' Kerry Dennin broke the momentum midway through the quarter, connecting from behind the perimeter with the junior adding on a minute later off a steal by Maggie McGrane in transition. Fitzgerald upped the lead to 13 on a put-back, but Geneseo worked the ball inside to earn consecutive trips to the foul line from Kiley Snow and Lauren Romito that brought the difference down to nine. Fitzgerald scored with less than a minute to go, but Snow found her way into the lane and connected for two to bring the score to 39-30 at halftime.
 
"We kind of let some things go, letting them get some easy baskets the other way," said Fitzgerald of the Knights' second quarter run. "We were pretty much, 'we have to pick up our defense,' not letting anything easy and just trying to get them to run their stuff."
 
SUNY New Paltz ignited from the third quarter whistle, as Van Vorst immediately knocked down a shot from 3 to bring the lead to 12. A defensive stop led to a bucket on the block by Korzekwinski, hitting on a tough finish against 6-foot, 3-inch Romito. The Hawks went back to Korzekwinski after Hannah Stockman hit a trey for the Knights next time down the floor with Korzekwinski earning a trip to the line, making both. Kozekwinski laid in two more in the paint before getting back to the charity stripe to add on another that brought the lead to 13 for SUNY New Paltz.  
"She honestly showed up… she put the pain away, put it in the back of her head and just showed up," said Walton of Korzekwinski who missed practice throughout the week as she healed an ankle injury. "She was a big part of our win tonight."
 
"That's something that Abby does a lot. She goes on her own personal runs and it may only be two, three minutes but it's so crucial to every victory that we've had," Fitzgerald added. "She's really aggressive inside and it doesn't matter how big the girl is that's guarding her. She's going to get it done."
 
SUNY New Paltz continued building on its lead with baskets in transition. Fitzgerald was sent to the line after running out on the break, getting hacked on her way up. She made both to extend the cushion to 19 and after a miss on a jumper, Fitzgerald pushed to Walton who laid in a bucket flexed the lead to 21 with less than three minutes to go.
 
Snow and Dennin brought the difference down to 14 in the final minute of the quarter, but as time expired Geneseo hit Van Vorst on a long-ranged 3 just as the buzzer sounded, putting the senior on the line for three where she connected on all to give her team a 63-46 cushion entering the final 10 minutes of play.
 
"New Paltz does such a good job of coming out of the locker room hot and we just said we have to just withstand that storm within the first three to four minutes and things will start to level out again," said Knights coach Alyssa Polosky. "We gave up some transition buckets early in the third quarter — and they're so good in transition. Bri is so good in transition; you've got Jenny who can knock down shots from the perimeter and it's kudos to them. They ended up shooting 47 percent from the floor. It's really hard to beat a team that shoots that well. Our goals were, if you can keep it under 20 turnovers, which we did, if we can out-rebound them, which we did by eight and keep them around 60 points then you can give yourself a legit shot and it was that last piece we were missing because they shot the ball really well and you just got to give credit to them."
 
The fourth quarter started like the third with Van Vorst knocking down a trey off an assist by Graci Serravillo. Van Vorst then became the benefactor as she found Walton behind the arc next time down the floor to quickly rebuild a 21-point advantage. SUNY New Paltz sustained the comfortable lead from there, sealing its spot back in the conference finals.
 
The Hawks finished 10-for-24 from 3-point range and hit 16-for-20 from the foul line in the win, while holding the Knights to just four made baskets from the perimeter. Dennin was the only scorer in double-figures for Geneseo with Romito, who averaged a double-double on the season, scoring seven points on 2-for-6 shooting, while pulling down a game-high 16 rebounds.
 
"New Paltz does a great job having bodies on me and limiting my ability to get the ball where I want it to," Romito said. "We really tried to post-up and get me the ball, but unfortunately there weren't many opportunities to do so and when I did I had a lot of arms all around me, which allowed for some turnovers that weren't necessary. But overall, they do a great job putting pressure on the inside where my game mostly is."
 
"The game plan was to get the ball out of [Romito's] hands and when it did get into her hands, it was doubling immediately, get it out and recover out to the shooters is something that we've executed great over the course of all three games against them," Fitzgerald said. "I think we went out there again and played good. There were some lapse of focuses throughout that, but overall we stuck to our game plan."
 
Walton led all scorers with 21 points in 26 minutes with a game-high four steals and two assists. Fitzgerald followed with 19 points on 6-for-11 shooting with a team-high seven rebounds and five assists, while Van Vorst registered 18 points, hitting 4-for-7 from 3-point range, with three rebounds, five assists and two steals.
 
The Hawks will face No. 2 seeded SUNY Cortland Saturday in the SUNYAC Championship game for the third straight season after the Red Dragons knocked off No. 3 seed Oneonta, 66-43 in the night cap. SUNY New Paltz defeated Cortland in both regular season matchups and beat the Red Dragons on their home floor last season to claim their third consecutive SUNYAC title in 2022. If they earn a win over Cortland Saturday, they'll be just the second program ever in SUNY New Paltz history to win four-straight SUNYAC titles, joining the Hawks field hockey program from 2012-15.
 
"We keep saying, we don't care who we play," Fitzgerald said. "We know we're going to show up and we're going to do the little things that's going to lead us to a championship tomorrow. We'll take it play by play and just come out like we did tonight and finish every play."
 
"It's all about the urgency," Walton added. "Regardless of what we do, every single play we have to be present."
 
The Hawks and Red Dragons are set to tip-off Saturday at 4:30 p.m. in the Hawk Center for a chance at a SUNYAC Championship title.  

Hawks Women's Basketball Post-Game Presser


Geneseo Women's Basketball Post-Game Presser


************************
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.