The women’s basketball team had a tough two game stretch this past weekend, losing two close games to conference rival SUNY Geneseo on Friday, Feb. 9 by a score of 61-53 and The College at Brockport on Saturday, Feb. 10 by a 70-63. Both games were road games for the Hawks, and the two losses marked an end to their four-game win streak, leaving them at 14-9.
The Hawks started off strong against Geneseo with a 19-14 lead at the end of the first quarter, but the Knights caught up with them in the second. There were three lead changes throughout the game, but it eventually came down to a 47 point tie with eight minutes left in the fourth quarter from which the Knights emerged victorious. The Knights’ bench performed admirably, scoring the team 37 points.
Despite the loss, third-year guard Rachel Simon and second-year guard Marion Dietz had a measurable impact on the score of the game, scoring 23 and 14 points respectively. The Knights had their points spread out more evenly, with their highest scorer being second-year guard Sara Ciotti scoring 11 points total. The Knights performed slightly better under the boards as well, grabbing 38 rebounds to the Hawks’ 32. Their lead rebounder was third-year forward McKenna Brooks who had nine rebounds, while the Hawks were helped by second-year forward Maddie Van Pelt who managed to grab six rebounds, while first-year forward Demi Herasme and Simon both reeled in five rebounds each.
Their luck did not get any better in their second outing of the week against Brockport, where according to Hawks head coach Jamie Seward, “They bullied us around and obtained deep, deep position in the paint from the start.”
The stats reflect this sentiment, with the Hawks only managing 37 rebounds to the Golden Eagles’ 54. The Hawks were led by Simon who scored 19 points, had three rebounds and two steals while third-year guard Lindsay Bettke scored 14 points with one rebound and one steal. On the Golden Eagles side, fourth-year forward Lindsay Johnson put up big numbers, with 24 points and 19 rebounds.
Despite only five lead changes, the Hawks kept the score close for the majority of the game, and with 1:19 remaining the score was 63-61. Unfortunately for the Hawks, the Golden Eagles did not let up for the remainder of the game, responding with seven points from free throws to bring the final score to 70-63.
While it was a tough two game stretch for the Hawks this weekend, they still have a playoff berth clinched while sitting at the fourth seed in the State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC). With a conference record of 10-6, the Hawks have proven that they can go toe-to-toe and remain competitive with the teams in their conference.
Herasme is certainly confident going into the final week of the season.
“The overall feeling and mentality going into these two games is competitiveness and toughness” Herasme said. “This is crunch time for our team and we have to show what our program is all about.”
The Hawks hope to bounce back on the road this weekend for their two final games of the regular season, going against SUNY Potsdam on Friday, Feb. 16 at 5:30 p.m. and SUNY Plattsburgh on Saturday, Feb. 17 at 1 p.m.