UTICA, NY – Joey Lufkin (Argyle, NY/Argyle Central) scored his team's final 10 points, all with under a minute left, to champion a late comeback effort which fell just short, 90-86, in favor of the host Utica Pioneers on Thursday night at Harold T. Clark Athletic Center. The Hawks, who trailed by as many as 23 points in the second half, trimmed the gap to just two points twice with under 20 ticks left, but the Pioneers closed the game out connecting on 7-of-8 of its attempts from the charity stripe with under 40 seconds to play to seal the win.
Hartwick's six-game win streak comes to an end, falling to 8-3 overall and 1-1 in the Empire 8. Utica picks up its first win of the season, now 1-10 on the year and 1-1 in league play. 'Wick is now 54-27 through 81 meetings with the Pioneers.
Tied for a team-high 24 points, Lufkin moves to ninth on the all-time scoring list at Hartwick with 1,370 points in his career.
Utica's early hot-shooting in the first half plagued Hartwick as the host shot near 60-percent from the floor (20-of-34) and nailed half of its 10 looks from downtown. UC's swingmen, Hunter Remley and Ivan Iton, combined for 25 of the team's 49 at the break as Iton, made seven of his ten attempts from the field and Remley, whose 15 points, led all scorers at the half, netted seven of his 13 tries.
LaForest would lead all Hawks at the end of the first half with ten points in just nine minutes. He tied for a team-high 24 points to go with five dimes for the contest.
In the first half, Utica pushed its lead to as many as seven before a LaForest kick out to a wide open Jake Sinicki (Endicott, NY/Maine-Endwell HS) momentarily calmed the Pioneers' lead.
Swiftly, the Pioneers combated with nine unanswered points prior to a basket from Matt Knezovic (Ballston Lake, NY/Mansfield University) snapping the streak 2:34 later.
For the final 11 minutes behind the intermission, Utica benefitted from a 27-23 scoring margin for the 49-34 score heading into the locker room.
UC continued to steamroll Hartwick well into the second 20 minutes, widening its advantage to as many as 23, up 73-50 with 8:49 to go.
A trey from Corey Baker (Granby, MA/Granby HS) eight ticks later snowballed a 26-10 surge for the Hawks, who trimmed their deficit to just seven, 83-76, at 1:00.
The Hawks continued to chip away, narrowing the gap to two after a Lufkin three with 17 seconds left. Two Utica free throws from Tyler Jollie made the Hartwick deficit four before a driving Lufkin layup put the score at 88-86 with 11 seconds to go.
Following another foul, Jollie connected on another pair to make it a two-possession game and the Hawks couldn't convert on the other end to allow UC to escape with the victory.
Off the bench, Ned Bakic (Garfield, NJ/Garfield) earned 14 points and two steals while Sinicki finished with 10 points and four boards. The team shot 50-percent for the game including 33.3-percent from long-range.
Hartwick returns to Lambros Arena for its first home Empire 8 contest of the season on Saturday. Ithaca College comes to town for the 4 p.m. tip-off.