ONEONTA, NY – Twenty-four hours after falling just short of upsetting first-place St. John Fisher, the Hartwick women's basketball team won perhaps the weekend's more important game on Sunday, coming from behind to beat Nazareth, 71-60, in Lambros Arena. The win lifts the Hawks to 12-10 overall and 6-5 in the Empire 8, just one game behind the Golden Flyers (12-7 overall, 7-4 E8) for the fourth and final Empire 8 Tournament spot. Critically, the Hawks have now won both games against Nazareth this season, which gives them the edge in a possible tiebreaking scenario for that playoff berth.
As has often been the case in both wins and losses this conference season, 'Wick started off slowly – although in this first quarter each team got off to a cold beginning. The first four-and-a-half minutes saw just six points scored, with Nazareth's Rachel Benedict earning four and Mary Schoenherr (Unionville, CT/Farmington) grabbing the other two. Miyah Sizer extended the visitors' lead out to 11-5 in the final minute, but Molly Kirby (Selkirk, NY/Bethlehem) put in the first of her season-high four three-pointers in response to fix the score at 11-8 after one.
Quarter two saw a more normal amount of offense, as the teams combined to nearly double their output from the first ten minutes. After Sizer canned a three on the first possession of the period, the Nazareth lead held steady between four and six points for the next few minutes. They grew the lead further from there, including all the way out to double digits when Isabella Gjonaj secured an offensive rebound off a Kelly Pine (Hoosick Falls, NY/Hoosick Falls) block and put in a lay-up for a 27-16 score. The Hawks slowly chipped away at their deficit for the rest of the half, culminating in Giuliana Pritchard's (Amsterdam, NY/Amsterdam) buzzer-beating putback after a missed Schoenherr trey. At the half, the Hawks trailed by just six at 31-25.
With the Golden Flyer lead at 36-29 over three minutes into the third, the Hawks began to make their move. Taylor Kurs (Rego Park, NY/Archbishop Molloy) assisted on a big Schoenherr three with 5:59 on the clock, teeing off an 11-0 run. Maggie Kirby (Selkirk, NY/Bethlehem) followed suit forty seconds later by earning her way to the line and knocking down a pair. Pine made a lay-up and was fouled off a great feed from Pritchard just over the halfway mark, and Schoenherr ended the stretch the way it began, with a three-pointer for a 40-36 lead with 3:14 on the clock. Ryann Stefaniak put an end to the unanswered run with a lay-up, but the Hawks were able to extend their lead all the way to eight at 47-39 on Molly Kirby's three with exactly one minute on the clock. Erica Bradley put in a final-minute lay-up at the other end later on, so the score ended up at 47-41 after three, home team in front.
Molly Kirby hit again from deep to open up the final quarter, and from there things stayed pretty comfortable for 'Wick for awhile. Nazareth did some scoring, but the Hawks were able to respond in kind. They led by 10 with four minutes gone by and still eight with just under four to go in the game, at 61-53. Things got a little dicier from there. Benedict layed one in with 3:25 on the clock, and after a Gjonaj steal Jadyn Abrams got a fastbreak lay-up to cut the score to 61-57 with 2:45 to go. Nazareth could not take advantage, however. Schoenherr hit two big free throws with 1:41 showing on the clock, and Molly Kirby sank the dagger with 1:05 remaining via a clutch three to make the score 66-57. 'Wick went 5-of-6 from the line the rest of the way, more than good enough to secure the 71-60 victory.
Schoenherr followed up her career-high 23 points yesterday with a game-high 21 more today, on 6-of-12 from the field, 2-of-3 from three, and 7-of-8 from the free throw line. Those two point totals are the first two times in her collegiate career she has eclipsed the 20-point mark. She also picked up a team-high seven rebounds, had five assists, and a steal. She now sits at seventh place on the program's career assists list with 323, passing Chrystel Colgan's 321 today.
In addition to three pointers made, Molly Kirby also set a season high with 19 points on a super-efficient 6-of-8 from the field and 4-of-5 from three, registering five rebounds as well. Maggie Kirby had 13 points and two boards, Pine ended up with 11 points, a career-high six assists, and three rebounds, and Pritchard had six points, five boards, two blocks, and an assist.
Benedict led a diverse Nazareth attack that had 10 scorers, scoring 13 points and registering 12 rebounds for a double-double. Abrams was the other Golden Flyers in double digits, with 12 points. Gjonaj and Lizzie Straub each had six points and were one of five Nazareth players with four rebounds; Gjonaj also had two steals, two assists, and a block, while Straub had an assist and a steal. Bradley had four boards to go with four points, a game-high three blocks, and an assist.
Hartwick had the upper hand in all shooting categories, leading Nazareth 45.1% to 36.2% from the field, an eye-popping 43.8% to 11.1% from three, and 85.7% to 66.7% from the free throw line. The difference was starker in the second half, when 'Wick outscored the Golden Flyers 46-29. The Hawks shot 54.2/66.7/93.3 compared to Nazareth's 34.5/0.0/64.3 in the final two quarters.
The visitors had the glass advantage, winning the rebounding battle 39 to 29, including a 17-6 lead in offensive rebounds that pointed to a 20-5 difference in second chance points. Hartwick turned the ball over 16 times and Nazareth 18, and 'Wick led 23-14 in points off of turnovers.
The Hawks are back at it next Friday on Valentine's Day, when they travel to Houghton to take on the Highlanders at 7:30 p.m. in another crucial Empire 8 game.
Make sure to catch the latest news on all your favorite Hartwick Hawks teams by following @HawkTalk on Twitter, @hartwickhawks on Instagram, and by liking 'Hartwick Hawks' on Facebook.