CLINTON, N.Y. – The State University of New York at New Paltz men's basketball team never trailed en route to a 75-69 non-conference win over Hamilton College on Saturday afternoon at Scott Field House in the Hawks' first game of the 2014 portion of their season. The victory's real significance, however, was that it marked the program's first-ever win over a New England Small College Athletic Conference (NESCAC) school.
 
Heading into Saturday's game, despite a geographical proximity to most of the NESCAC institutions, New Paltz had only played against a NESCAC school on five occasions. All five times prior to Saturday, New Paltz found itself on the losing end of the result.
 
"I always say that New Paltz is a public NESCAC school," third-year head coach Mike Rejniak said following the victory. "This is a signature win not only for our program, but for our institution. With this young team, getting a win against a NESCAC opponent is huge. Having coached in the NESCAC, I know how good of a win it is. Even when we were up 12, they banged two straight three-pointers and were right back in it. You can't take a possession off against a NESCAC team."
 
Matched up against Hamilton for the second time in as many years, New Paltz beat the Adam Stockwell-led Continentals after losing at the Hawk Center in 2012-13. Stockwell, who previously helmed SUNY Oswego's men's basketball team for two seasons from 2009-11, came into Saturday with a 5-0 all-time record against New Paltz.
 
"I think first and foremost, Hamilton is well-coached," Rejniak said. "You have to come out and guard the x's and o's and match their physicality. You also have to do the little things right to hang with this tough of an intellectual opponent."
 
The Hawks rise to 4-5 overall and resume State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) play on Tuesday, Jan. 7, against SUNY Cortland at 8 p.m. at the Hawk Center. The Continentals drop to 6-5 overall and meet up with non-conference SUNY Cobleskill on Monday, Jan. 6, at 7 p.m.
 
New Paltz hit five three-pointers in the first 10:47 of play to take a 19-14 lead with 9:13 to go in the first half, and after sophomore forward Kevin Roach (Levittown, N.Y./MacArthur) stretched the advantage to six with a free throw, the Continentals tied the game on the strength of a 6-0 run, which prompted Rejniak to take a full timeout. Sophomore guard Keegan Donovan (Groton, N.Y./Groton) scored five points in a 6-0 Hawk spurt that put the visitors up 26-20, and Donovan knocked down another trey 1:10 later to hand New Paltz an eight-point edge. Hamilton's sophomore guard Matt Hart drilled a shot from beyond the arc with 42 ticks left in the first stanza to provide the halftime score of 33-28.
 
Junior guard/forward R.J. Rosa (Marlboro, N.Y./Sullivan West), who finished with a career-high 20 points, had a hot hand in the final 20 minutes of play, scoring six of his 14 second-half points off a pair of three-pointers in the opening minutes of the period. The two teams traded points until Rosa sunk a pair of free throws to reopen a game-high 11-point lead with 14:48 to go in regulation. Hart connected on back-to-back threes to cut the deficit to five, and after a made jumper by Rosa, Hamilton relied on consecutive buckets from senior guard Greg Newton and junior forward Peter Kazickas to draw within three.
 
New Paltz's three-point shooting helped Hamilton from seizing control of the lead midway through the second period, as graduate student guard Nick Taldi (Merrick, N.Y./Bellmore JFK) and freshman forward Andrew Seniuk(Wantagh, N.Y./MacArthur) helped extinguish key runs by knocking down shots from distance. New Paltz received back-to-back layups by junior guard/forward Taylor Sowah (Bronx, N.Y./Miller Place) to break open a 10-point edge with 3:35 to play, and after Hart hit two free throws, sophomore forward Alex Perlman (Yorktown Heights, N.Y./Lakeland) added more reinforcement with a layup. Hart ended up getting fouled shooting a three-pointer and converted on all three free throws, while Newton banged a shot in from distance to bring Hamilton within four with 1:06 to go.
 
Junior guard Joseph Lin stole the ball on the Hawks' next possession and took it the other way for a layup with one minute remaining, giving the Continentals a chance to take the lead with a stop. New Paltz hardly let any time bleed off the clock, with Perlman cashing in on a Donovan pass just eight seconds into the possession, and Rosa came down with a defensive board on the Continentals' next trip down the floor to force Hamilton to foul. The home team was held scoreless in the final minute, and New Paltz came away with its second-ever victory at Hamilton's Scott Field House.
 
New Paltz shot 42.1 percent (24-of-57) from the floor for the game and 35.5 percent (11-of-31) from long range. To boot, the Hawks scored 21 points off 18 Hamilton turnovers and shot 72.7 percent (16-of-22) from the line. Hamilton shot better than New Paltz from the field (44.8 percent off 26-of-58 shooting) and held a commanding 42-30 edge in rebounds, but the Continentals were done in by 18 turnovers.
 
Rosa led the way for New Paltz with his career-high 20 points, and he also registered career-high marks in rebounds (7), assists (4) and steals (3). Donovan and Sowah also chipped in with 13 points apiece. In a balanced scoring effort, nine of the 10 Hawks who saw action scored at least one point.
 
Hart ignited the Hamilton attack with a game-high 27 points, while Newton added 17. Junior forward Bradley Gifford and Kazickas tied for the game-high in rebounds with eight each.