CORTLAND, N.Y. – For the first time this season, the State University of New York at New Paltz women's basketball team (7-7, 5-2 SUNYAC) reached the .500 mark, downing SUNY Cortland (8-7, 3-5 SUNYAC) by a count of 68-60 at Corey Gym on Saturday afternoon in a State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) game. The victory also stretched the Hawks' win streak to four games.

This also marks just the fifth time in program history that the Hawks have downed the Red Dragons, as Cortland, a perennial power, has held the upper hand in the series.

The Hawks put four players in double figures. Senior point guard Kaitlin Clifford and senior forward Shanay Bradley (Bronx, N.Y./New Explorers) tied for the game-high in points with 17 apiece, and junior guard Maliqua Fisher (North Babylon, N.Y./North Babylon) and senior guard Caitlin Irwin (Brooklyn, N.Y./Bishop Kearney) joined them in double-digit scoring figures with 12 and 11 points, respectively. Bradley pulled down a game-high 11 rebounds, while Irwin and Clifford distributed the ball well, dishing out seven and six assists, respectively. Clifford also added five steals.

For Cortland, Brittany Cohen was the lone Red Dragon player to reach double figures with 10 points. Cohen's stat line also included five assists, a rebound, a block and a steal. Megan Maycumber paced the Red Dragons on the glass with a team-high nine boards.

New Paltz forced Cortland into 23 turnovers and held a 43-40 edge on the boards, but the team did not shoot the ball particularly well, going just 27-of-69 (39.1 percent) from the floor. Neither team fared well at the charity stripe, with the Red Dragons shooting at a 42.9 percent (9-of-21) clip and the Hawks shooting at a 55 percent (11-of-20) clip.

The Hawks hopped out to a quick 5-0 lead in the first minute of action, as Clifford drained a three-pointer and Bradley nailed a jumper. Cortland ended up going on a 6-0 tear to capture the lead, and the two squads battled back and forth until the Red Dragons went on a 12-2 run, which was capped off by a three-pointer by Ally Biordi. Cortland clung to that advantage for a few minutes, but New Paltz outscored the Red Dragons by a 14-8 margin down the stretch in the first half to draw within three (36-33) at the break.

The second half belonged to the Hawks, as they outscored their counterpart, 35-24, in the final 20 minutes of play. New Paltz blew the game open in the first nine minutes of the second stanza, going on a 21-3 run. During that stretch, Bradley scored eight of her 17 points. Cortland would not get any closer than within eight points the remainder of the contest.

New Paltz returns to action on Friday, Jan. 20, when it hosts The College at Brockport at 6 p.m. at the Hawk Center in a league tilt.