Defense Key Part in Hawks Win

NEWBURGH, NY- The SUNY New Paltz women’s basketball team opened the 2009-2010 season with a win over Mount Saint Mary College, 63-56 (Box Score) at the Elaine and William Kaplan Recreation Center on the campus of Mt. St. Mary College. It is the first time since the 2005-06 season that the two teams squared off. The Blue Knights have won five straight and seven of the last eight games against the Hawks. New Paltz (1-0) last win came in the 2000-01 season.

“It was good to get that first win of the season and it’s a great win for our program. We have been playing nationally ranked programs over the years and getting this win on the road shows how far this program has come over the last four years” said head coach Jamie Seward. “The Mount was coming off an upset victory over nationally ranked New York University (NYU) and we wanted to come out and set the tone early.”

Senior Nicole Sarcone (Staten Island/Notre Dame) had a team-high 13 points and three assists and senior Maggie Farrell (Hillsdale/Immaculate) chipped in with 11 points a team-high eight rebounds and three steals. Senior Kristen Caban (Staten Island/Saint Joseph Hill Academy) return after missing last season with an injury, scoring nine points and adding a team-high four steals.

The Blue Knights were led by Shannon Sangster with a game-high 16 points and five rebounds and Amanda Horvers chipped in with 13 points and three steals. Jess Tice netted 10 points and had a game-high nine rebounds as the Mt. St. Mary College falls to 1-1 on the season.

With 3:26 remaining in the first half, sophomore Bridget Grover (Rockville Centre/Holy Trinity) hit two free throws to tie the game at 19-19. The Hawks would end the first half on 7-2 run to go into the half with a 26-21 lead.

In the second half, the Hawks came out quickly; scoring six of the first seven points, but the Blue Knights were able to cur the lead to one at 32-31 with 17:23 remaining. That was as close as the Blue Knight would get the rest of the game. The Hawks played tough aggressive defense forcing 25 turnovers in the game due to the large part of senior Kristin Sitek. “Kristin was huge for us tonight off the bench. She came in and played extremely tough defense” stated Seward.

The Hawks return to the court on Friday, November 20 at 6 p.m. against Tufts University in the opening round of the Rino’s Pizza Tip-Off Tournament held at the Hawk Center on the campus of SUNY New Paltz.