Hawks defeat Oswego women in OT

OSWEGO, NY- The SUNY New Paltz women’s basketball team defeated Oswego State Friday night 71-65 in overtime in the Max Ziel Gymnasium. The Hawks forced 29 turnovers and won the turnover battle for the 16th time in 20 games and had 20 steals as a team. The Hawks held Oswego’s top two scorers out of double-figures which only a few teams have done all year.

The Hawks jumped out to an 8-3 lead in the first two and half minutes and Oswego started chipping away at the lead to tie the game at 14-14 with 6:56 remaining in the first half.  The Hawks scored five straight points, but the Lakers would not let the Hawks pull away as they scored five straight to keep the game tied at 19-19 with 2:16 remaining.  The teams went into the break tied at 23-23.

Junior guard Nicole Sarcone (Staten Island, NY/Notre Dame Academy) led the Hawks with six points and four assists and junior guard Maggie Farrell (Hillsdale, NY/Immaculate) and freshman guard Caitlin Irwin (Brooklyn, NY/Bishop Kearney) each added four points apiece.  Farrell also added four rebounds and four steals for the Hawks.

The Lakers were led by Traci Bacon with ten points and five rebounds and Heather Merino and Tricia Sullivan each chipped in with four points apiece.

The second half, the Lakers came out strong starting the half on a 7-2 run to take a 30-25 lead with 16:03 remaining.  With the Hawks trailing 39-34 with 10:41 remaining, they went on a 10-3 run to take the lead 44-42 with 9:06 left.  The Hawks were trailing 57-55 with six seconds to go in the game and Oswego’s Colleen McCready had a chance to seal the game with two free throws, but only made one of two from the line. Irwin tied the contest at 58-58 with a three-pointer with three seconds to go. The Lakers in-bounded the ball and Bacon attempt to win the game was blocked by Irwin to send the game into overtime.

In the overtime session, the Hawks jumped out scoring the first seven points in the extra frame and the Lakers were unable to recover and fell to the Hawks 71-65 in overtime.

Irwin led the Hawks with 17 points, three rebounds, three assists and four steals and Sarcone added a double-double with 14 points, six rebounds, ten assists and three steals.  Sarcone moves into second place all-time at New Paltz in assists in her career with 315 assists.  Farrell added 12 points, eight rebounds, two assists and a game and career-high six steals and junior forward Carly Minehan (Albany, NY/Albany) added ten points, six boards and two blocks.  Minehan moves into 11th all-time in blocks in a season with 17.

The Lakers were led by Bacon with a game high 20 points and eight boards and McCready added 14 points and a game-high 16 boards. Rachel Kohrs added 12 points and four rebounds. The Lakers lose for the fourth time in five games and fall to 10-13 overall and 8-9 in the SUNYAC.

The Hawks improve to 14-6 overall and 10-2 in the SUNYAC and have won three of four. The Hawks return tomorrow against Buffalo State at 2 p.m. on the campus of Buffalo State.