GENESEO, N.Y. – Four players finished in double figures for the State University of New York at New Paltz men's basketball team, including a team-high 22 points from senior guard/forward Taylor Sowah (Bronx, N.Y./Miller Place) but the Hawks fell at SUNY Geneseo 76-65 on Friday night.
 
With the defeat, New Paltz moves to 10-12, 8-7 State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) and will look to recover tomorrow at 2 p.m. against The College at Brockport. Currently, the Hawks and SUNY Cortland are tied for seventh place in the standings. The Knights, meanwhile, improve to 13-8, 9-5 SUNYAC and host SUNY Oneonta at 2 p.m. on Saturday. Geneseo is sitting in third place in the league.
 
Sowah scored his 22 points behind 7-of-10 shooting from the field and an 8-of-12 showing from the foul line. The senior nearly had another double double, pulling down a team-high nine rebounds while dishing out three assists and corralling four steals on the evening.
 
Joining Sowah in double digits was junior forward Kevin Roach (Levittown, N.Y./MacArthur) who tallied 16 points and seven rebounds. Sophomore guard Eric Regenbogen (Wantagh, N.Y./Wantagh) notched 10 points and five steals off the bench, while senior guard/forward R.J. Rosa (North Branch, N.Y./Sullivan West) tallied 10 points, five steals, four rebounds and four assists. Rosa came into tonight's game leading the SUNYAC and ranking second in Division III in steals with 3.53 spg.
 
New Paltz ran into a hot-shooting Geneseo squad as the Knights shot 48.2 percent from the field (27-of-56) and 40.0 percent (10-of-25) from beyond the arc. Senior forward James McKenna recorded a career-high 26 points while notching 10 rebounds and senior guard Andy Drescher notched 20 points behind six threes.
 
Senior forward Gordon Lyons, who leads all of Division III averaging 13.4 rpg, was limited by New Paltz to just six boards for the contest. In fact, Genseo's two games against New Paltz this year were the lone contests that Lyons was held without a double double.
 
The Hawks were able to force 24 Geneseo turnovers and scored 24 points off those Knight mistakes as New Paltz recorded an impressive 21 steals. But the Knights won the battle on the glass, 38-32, as well as scoring 32 points in the paint.
 
New Paltz earned their first lead of the contest early on following a pair of made free throws by Roach at 17:09 in the first half. Roach, who scored the first seven points for the Hawks, nailed a three a few moments later to give the visitors a 7-4 lead.
 
Geneseo responded and knotted the contest at 12 but the Hawks came right back with a 6-0 run that started with a Sowah fast-break dunk to take slim, two-point lead (14-12) with 11:38 to go. Regenbogen and junior forward/center Alex Perlman (Yorktown Heights, N.Y./Lakeland) both made a pair of free throws to give New Paltz a six-point edge (18-12).
 
Rosa hit a layup with 7:15 left to put the Hawks up by six once more (20-14) but the Knights heated up from downtown in their next few possessions and claimed a 22-20 lead with 5:40 to play in the opening period.
 
The next four possessions featured a made three as Drescher and Regenbogen went shot-for-shot but New Paltz still trailed 28-27 despite the torrid shooting stretch. Geneseo started to pull away in the closing minutes of the first half, going on a 7-0 run to put the Hawks in a 35-27 hole. With 28 seconds left on the clock, Rosa hit a three to cut into the Geneseo lead, 37-32, which remained the score at intermission.
 
The Knights remained accurate from long range to start the second half and jumped out to an eight-point lead (40-32) following another Drescher three. However, New Paltz battled back and cut that deficit in half (40-36) following layups by Sowah and Rosa.
 
Unfortunately, Geneseo answered with a 7-2 spurt to claim a 47-38 advantage with 14:22 left. The Hawks cut the lead down to five (47-42) thanks to shots by Regenbogen and Sowah, but the Knights responded as McKenna knocked down eight-straight points to give Geneseo a 13-point lead (57-44) with 8:16 in regulation.
 
Down the stretch, the Hawks tried to widdle away at the Geneseo lead and got within six points (67-61) with a little over three minutes to play. But with every counter, the Knights had an answer as McKenna, Drescher and junior forward Nick Fessenden kept hitting free throws, which proved to be too much of a deficit to come back from.