ONEONTA, NY – After securing a slim four-point lead heading for the break, the prolific guard play of Joey Lufkin (Argyle, NY/Argyle Central) and Brandon LaForest (Cohoes, NY/Cohoes HS) championed the Hartwick men's basketball team's 78-63 convincing victory over the visiting Elmira Soaring Eagles at Lambros Arena Saturday evening. The duo's scoring backed a 21-point second-half lead, the largest on the evening, to elevate the Hawks to 12-6 on the year and 5-4 inside the Empire 8. After dropping their first season meeting with the Hawks, the Soaring Eagles have since fell in five of their last six dropping to 3-14 and 1-7 in conference play.
LaForest used a perfect scoring performance from the floor missing just one free throw to establish a game-high 25 points at Lambros. The sophomore's eight tries from the field and six from distance all found the net accompanied by four boards, two assists, a rejection, and a steal.
Draining 20 points on the evening, Lufkin moves to ninth on the all-time scoring list at Hartwick with 1,506 points to his career. The senior joins an elite class as just one of seven players to achieve this feat. Lufkin also assisted on seven baskets tying his season-high and grabbed a steal.
Lufkin and Elmira's Henry Coffee's eight points led at the half. Coffee was just one of six scoring reserves in the first onset of the game which contributed 19 points to that of 'Wick's four-point performance from the bench.
Elmira got down by as many as seven points after allowing Corey Baker (Granby, MA/Granby HS) to get to the basket, 25-18, just 2:47 behind the break. Kyle McCreery would answer notching his only points of the game and a three ball from Alex Ischiropoulus would bring their team's deficit to just two.
Jake Sinicki (Endicott, NY/Maine-Endwell HS) traded a three-point make soon after with a layup from Coffee but a split at the line from LaForest would simmer the halftime score, 29-25. Sinicki ended the half with seven points and logged two more in the second to finish with nine for the evening.
Hartwick immediately upped its defensive pressure in the second half disrupting three possessions from Elmira disallowing them to escape the back court. Such prowess allowed two threes, each from the hands of LaForest and Justin Pratt (North Kingstown, RI/North Kingstown HS), and a strong take to the cup from Justin Carruthers (Greenwich, NY/Greenwich HS).
At 16:44, a good look from long-range for Ischiropoulos brought the Soaring Eagles back within four, 37-33, but that would be the closest flirt to a comeback as the gap never grew smaller. Ischiropoulos finished with nine points, a block and a steal.
The visitor's 52 bench points also came in credit to Jesse Adelson's seven points and two assists and Justin Porrett's six points. Porrett's eight boards led EC.
Pratt received his nine points all from downtown going 3-of-6 from behind the arc (50 percent) to go with a team-high five boards and a game-high three steals.
Carruthers added six points and four boards while Baker helped with five points and three rebounds.
Hartwick benefitted 32 points off of Elmira's 27 turnovers and shot 44.3 percent (27-of-61) for the game as well as 39.4 percent (13-of-33) from distance. EC went 47.9 percent (23-of-48) and 54.5 percent (12-22) in those respective categories.
Next, Hartwick embarks on a three-game road stretch beginning with Stevens on Tuesday, January 31. The action starts at 8 p.m. at Canavan Arena.