ONEONTA, NY – In now the second to last week of league action, the Hartwick men's basketball team used four Hawks in double figures to propel them to an 87-72 victory over Utica Tuesday night at Lambros Arena. The Hawks' backcourt combined for 50 points in the win to boost the team to 15-7 overall and 8-5 in Empire 8 play. With the loss, the Pioneers are now 6-15 and 6-6 in the league.
Joey Lufkin (Argyle, NY/Argyle Central) dropped 26 points at Lambros to lead all scorers while also supplying five rebounds and three steals.
Brandon LaForest (Cohoes, NY/Cohoes HS) got 24 points for the night highlighted by the six three-pointers he drilled in the first half. The sophomore further punctuated his stat line with seven assists and four steals. Now with 47 thefts for the season, LaForest is 10th in steals earned in a single season at Hartwick.
Justin Pratt (North Kingstown, RI/North Kingstown HS) and Jake Sinicki (Endicott, NY/Maine-Endwell HS) netted 12 points each. Pratt saw his dozen hail from behind the arc (4-of-7) while Sinicki did a bit of everything adding eight boards, five dimes, two steals, and a block.
The road team was led by Ivan Iton's double-double comprised of 25 points and 17 boards. The Pioneers also benefitted from its 26-point bench production spearheaded by Christian Rodriguez's 16.
Utica earned the first bucket of the night and kept a slight advantage over the first few minutes.
At 17:02 that changed as Justin Carruthers (Greenwich, NY/Greenwich HS) fed an open Pratt who cashed in on a trey to even the score to seven apiece. Carruthers would end with eight points, three boards, a steal, an assist and a block.
Within the next 20 seconds, Iton committed two turnovers which the Hawks converted to five quick points, 12-7, and the host would never look back.
At the intermission, Utica trailed by 10 points, 42-32, but would struggle to knife into the deficit for the next 10 minutes of play.
At the 9:40 mark, Rodriguez hit a triple to bring Utica within 11 before a Kyler Mower trey brought the gap to single digits once more, 61-53.
However, the Hawks went on to outscore their opponent, 26-19, until the final score was determined.
Next, Hartwick travels to Ithaca on Saturday, February 11 for a 4 p.m. battle with the Bombers.