New Paltz, NY — The State University of New York at New Paltz dominated early to propel a convincing 83-65 win over visiting SUNY Plattsburgh Saturday in the Hawk Center.
 
The Hawks collected its fourth-straight win and 16th consecutive over the Cardinals, while improving to 12-3 overall and 7-1 in the SUNYAC.
 
Coming off a nine-point win over Potsdam Friday night, SUNY New Paltz made sure to put away Plattsburgh early on. Jenny Walton earned a steal on the full court press and then was the benefactor on the offensive end as Madison Mullman found Walton on the perimeter. The swish from 3-point range gave the Hawks a 20-8 lead with four minutes left in the first quarter.
 
Plattsburgh cut the difference down to single digits twice in the final minutes of the first quarter, but the Hawks ended strong thanks to back-to-back plays made by Erin Cooney off the bench. Cooney swished from straight on from beyond the arc, then hustled to get the steal in the front court. She went coast-to-coast but couldn't get her contested shot at the rim to go, but stayed with the play and came up with her own board and swung the ball around to give SUNY New Paltz the last shot of the quarter where they capitalized on a bucket in the paint by Brianna Fitzgerald, which pushed the lead to 28-14 entering the second.
 
 
 The Hawks took the momentum into the following period and had a dominating 10 minutes where they limited the Cardinals to just eight points on three made shots, which allowed SUNY New Paltz to build on its cushion. Abby Korzekwinski gave her team its largest lead of the half with back-to-back baskets, first in the paint with a nice move on the block then hitting from 3-point range on a kick-out by Walton to bring the score to 41-22 at the break.
 
"The goal was to put them away early," Walton said. "We've been stuck in this 11-point lead thing with teams, and I think today we really did push it forward. Today we really focused on energy, so our energy was able to get us that lead early."  
Plattsburgh was more efficient offensively in the second half than in the first, but still couldn't overcome the double-digit deficit at any point the rest of the way. The Hawks took their largest lead of the game in the third quarter after a steal and triple from Mullman, followed by an and-1 by Fitzgerald, which put the score at 63-38 with just more than two minutes to go in the period.
 
SUNY New Paltz's 3-point shooting helped maintain the large lead as Mullman and Semaiah Williams started knocking down shots from the arc with Williams setting a career-high, going 3-for-5 form 3-point land to finish with nine points off the bench on the night.
 
"It's really awesome, especially from the bench players," Walton said. "They work so hard in practice it's really good to see them execute it in the game. Semaiah went 3-for-5 [from 3], which is crazy. She was really excited about it. Madison hit some big shots and so did Erin, so it was really good to see that as well."
 
The 83 points scored was the second-most on the season for the Hawks who totaled a season-high 21 assists as a team. Morgan Hammell and Julia Sabatino led the way with a game-high five. Walton and Fitzgerald led SUNY New Paltz offensively with 20 points apiece. Walton shot 8-for-18, while adding four rebounds, three assists and one steal in 27 minutes. Fitzgerald made 7-for-15 from the floor and 6-for-6 from the foul line, while registering a team-high eight rebounds and four steals with four assists.
 
Korzekwinski and Mullman rounded out the Hawks' top scorers, as Korzekwinski finished with 13 points on 6-for-7 shooting with six rebounds — which all came on the offensive glass — and a steal. Mullman contributed 12 points off the bench, hitting 4-for-9 from 3-point range with three rebounds, an assist, a block and two steals.
 
 
"We just had really good pressure," Walton said. "We were working as a team and I think not having a lot of turnovers helped us a lot. We were moving the ball really well on offense so that sets us up for really good defensive possessions to get back easier when we're rebounding."
 
SUNY New Paltz is back in action Tuesday for a highly anticipated matchup on the road against SUNY Cortland. The Red Dragons bested the Hawks in their first encounter this season, which came in the Hawk Center and handed them their only conference defeat on the year. They hope to not only extend their winning streak, but also even the series as they move into the second half of their schedule with SUNYAC Tournament seeding in play. Tip-off is scheduled at 5:30 p.m.
 
"I think [today] was good. We can watch film on our offense, and we can really use the energy and the high of this game to move into our next game against Cortland," Walton added. "We're just going to keep working hard in practice."

Post-Game Featuring Jenny Walton



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