NORTH ADAMS, MA – Hartwick College women's basketball fell on the road at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts 79-66 on Thursday night. The Hawks fall to 3-4 with the setback.
The Hawks and Trailblazers battled through a tight first half and eight minutes of the second stanza before the hosts pulled away thanks to a 20-5 run over a six-minute span. A Lee Arduini (Albany, NY/Academy of Holy Names) bucket with 11:32 remaining knotted the score at 49, but the Blazers took the lead for good on their next possession on a Courtney Terzi jumper.
Kate Purcell (Buffalo, NY/Mount Mercy) led the Hawks with a double-double, finishing with 19 points and 11 boards. Maria Foglia (Rensselaer, NY/Catholic Central) also made it into double figures with 11 points. Marie Davison (Saratoga, NY/Saratoga Springs) scored nine points, all on three-point baskets, and Arduini added seven points.
Jen Wehner led all scorers with 23 points for MCLA. She also grabbed a game-high 12 rebounds. Alie Dobrovolc contributed 14 for the victors.
Neither team was able to gain much of an upper-hand until the late stages of the first half. The Trailblazers led by as many as seven points, 29-22, with 3:36 to go before back-to-back triples from Davison and Arduini cut the lead to one. Davison added another trey with three seconds to go in the half to shave the deficit to two, 35-33.
MCLA hit 57% from the floor as a team in the half. The Hawks, despite hitting just 32%, stayed in the contest by making five of their nine attempts from beyond the arc.
In the second half, Hartwick stayed with the Blazers, never trailing by more than six points for the first eight and a half minutes. MCLA, however, took control with the big run to take a 69-54 lead with just over five minutes left.
The Hawks cut lead down to 11 points, 72-61, on a Purcell free throw with 3:16 remaining, but MCLA scored eight of the next 10 points to pick up the win. The Blazers closed out the night making 27-of-52 shots (52%). The Hawks made 20-of-68 (29%) from the floor in the game.
'Wick, which close out the first semester with a 3-4 mark, open up Empire 8 Conference play on January 7th on the road at Nazareth.