Cortland, NY — The State University of New York at New Paltz suffered a 78-48 loss on the road to the Cortland Red Dragons on Friday. 

The Hawks drop to 2-8 overall and 0-3 in the SUNYAC following their fifth straight loss. Cortland (8-3, 4-0 SUNYAC) outproduced SUNY New Paltz on offense all game, shooting 43.1 percent from the field compared to the Hawks' 25.9 percent. The Red Dragons also drilled 12 of their 33 attempts from behind the arc, while SUNY New Paltz only made two of their 16 tries. 

LaMar Matthews was the standout player for the Hawks, scoring a game-high 23 points along with 11 rebounds. Matthew's efforts helped aid SUNY New Paltz's offense, which was suffering due to the exemption of Isaiah Rivera from the contest, ineligible due to technical fouls accumulated in previous games. Rivera leads the Hawks in points, rebounds and blocks, and the loss of the sophomore wing was felt on the court against the Red Dragons. 

In the first four minutes of play, the Hawks were able to play both ways with Cortland, staying within four points of the hosts. However, as the half went on, the Red Dragons began to soar past SUNY New Paltz. Their largest unanswered run came 11 minutes into the game, when an emphatic score by Cortland gave a 28-9 advantage to the Red Dragons, forcing the Hawks to take a timeout to cease the 15-point crusade. 

Out of the timeout, Mo Sylla hit 1-2 free throws before sinking two attempts from the line less than a minute later. Cortland answered with two straight layups before Amir Hughes drew a foul and sank both shots to cut the score to 32-14. 

With under two minutes left in the first, Sylla worked off a rebound and assist by Matthews and scored a fast break layup. In the first alone, Matthews gathered a team-high seven rebounds, with the second-chance opportunities and repossessions keeping SUNY New Paltz in the game. 

Matthews continued to dominate on the boards and gathered Cortland's next shot attempt to bring it down to the other end himself. With only seconds left, Matthews was fouled shooting and drained both free throws to get the Hawks within 14 points heading into halftime, down 32-18.  

Unfortunately, the Hawks could not get going out of the half, and were met with five straight points from the Red Dragons in the first minute of the second. Matthews continued to be the offensive catalyst and was the only player to score for SUNY New Paltz until 14 minutes remained in the game, when Oumar Sy sank two free throws to make the score 55-25. 

Sy put two more points up on a fast break opportunity, but Cortland responded with nine unanswered points. Once again, Matthews was the only one to score to contest the Red Dragons near insurmountable lead until Trevor Amalfitano scored his first trey of the second half with six and a half minutes remaining. 

For the rest of the game, the only points came from Matthews until the last seconds, when Andrew Leonard put up a good lay for the final points of the contest. The final buzzer sounded, on Cortland's assertive win, with the Red Dragons victorious 78-48. 

Matthews was the only Hawk to score in double digits, scoring 23 in 32 minutes played. Amalfitano added eight points, an assist and a block. Sylla followed with seven points, five rebounds and a steal. 

SUNY New Paltz returns to the court tomorrow against the Morrisville Mustangs. Tip-off is set for 4 p.m. 


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