ROCHESTER, NY – Brandon LaForest (Cohoes, NY/Cohoes) and Tommy Kelly (Niskayuna, NY/Niskayuna) combined for 54 points but the Hartwick men's basketball team fell to Nazareth on the road Friday night in an Empire 8 showdown. The Hawks slip to 7-12 overall and 4-6 in league play. Naz improves to 14-6 and 9-2 overall.

            LaForest scored a game-high 30 points on 11-of-20 shooting. He also made four three-pointers and added three assists. Kelly netted a season-high 24 points on 9-of-12 from the floor. Corey Baker (Granby, MA/Granby) was the Hawks' next highest scorer with seven. He also tied for a game-high with seven rebounds. Kevin Townes (Lagrangeville, NY/Our Lady of Lourdes) also had seven boards.

            The first half saw eight tie scores and seven lead changes. Hartwick led by its biggest margin of the game, 13-6, with 16:16 left in the half. A 12-5 Naz run tied the game at 18 at the 12:34 mark and it remained tight the rest of the half. A Kelly jumper at 4:43 gave Hartwick its final lead of the night, 44-42, but a Golden Flyers' three-pointer 2:10 later put them up for good.

            After taking a 52-48 advantage into halftime, five straight points to start the second half put Naz up nine. Over the next five minutes, the Hawks would cut the deficit to four on two occasions but they never got any closer. An 11-3 run would give Naz an 80-69 lead with under four minutes left and it held a double-digit lead for the remainder of the contest.

            Both teams shot over 52% from the field. Naz held a slim 28-27 edge on the glass. The Hawks only turned the ball over 11 times in the game, but the Golden Flyers would convert them into a total of 22 points. 

            Nazareth was led by Tyler Stenglein's 22 points. Daniel Jacob added 20. Stephen Gabel contributed 16 points and Jake Burgio netted 15.

            Hartwick is back at it tomorrow as it plays St. John Fisher beginning at 2 p.m.