NEW PALTZ, N.Y. – In its first game of 2011-12 State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) play, the State University of New York at New Paltz women's basketball team (2-4, 1-0 SUNYAC) ran away with a victory in a 77-47 decision over SUNY Fredonia (3-3, 0-1 SUNYAC) on Friday night at the Hawk Center.

In the victorious effort, the Hawks won their first game by at least 30 points since Dec. 4, 2009, in their 2009-10 SUNYAC opener against SUNY Plattsburgh, also at the Hawk Center. New Paltz has not lost its first home SUNYAC game of a season since Nov. 29, 2005, when the Hawks fell to SUNY Oneonta.

Leading the bountiful Hawks' scoring attack were senior guard Zoe Cohen (Brooklyn, N.Y./The Berkeley Carroll School) and junior forward Alex McCullough (Delmar, N.Y./Bethlehem Central), scoring a game-high 14 points each, both on 6-of-8 shooting from the floor and 2-of-3 shooting from three-point land. Sophomore forward Jeanette Scott (West Babylon, N.Y./North Babylon) came off the bench along with Cohen to add 10 points to the New Paltz total. Senior forward Shanay Bradley (Bronx, N.Y./New Explorers) led all players with 11 rebounds on the night. As a team, the Hawks pulled down a whopping 57 boards, compared to Fredonia's 30. Bradley also tacked on two blocks and two steals.

The Blue Devils had three double-digit scorers: Becky Hebert with 12 points, Jaimie Warren with 11 and Nicole Calbi with 10. Hebert tied Bradley for a game-high two blocks and two steals. Liz Wierbinski and Anna Riley both brought down five rebounds for Fredonia.

The Hawk attack was effective early and often, beginning to pull away from the Blue Devils with 18:12 remaining in the first half, as a freshman point guard Shannan Walker (Vestal, N.Y./Vestal) three-pointer put the Hawks up 7-4, giving the Hawks their third edge of the night, one they would never relinquish. Fredonia did not attain a lead through the duration of the contest.

New Paltz shut the door on Fredonia's chances with a 21-1 run midway through the first half, started by two successful free-throws by senior point guard Kaitlin Clifford (Staten Island, N.Y./Curtis) with 10:42 left in the stanza. McCullough stole the ball away from the Blue Devils on the next possession, setting up her own bucket from beyond the arc to extend the lead to 27-14. During the run, McCullough scored 10 points, including another deep ball with 7:21 remaining in the first half. Her layup with 3:14 left made the score 43-15, before the run was broken by two made foul shots by Kristina Kuscht. Sophomore point guard Pippa Mandorf (Hastings-on-Hudson, N.Y./Hastings) knocked down a jumper at the buzzer to send the Hawks to halftime with a 51-22 lead.

New Paltz came out of the break more conservative with its 29-point lead, allowing Warren to hit a three-pointer and another jumper in the first minute and 10 seconds of the second half to lower the margin to 24 points, 51-27. The Hawks gained some of their offensive momentum back at the midway point of the period, stretching their lead to a game-high 34 points with a Cohen jumper with 8:11 remaining. New Paltz held this advantage three times over the course of the next several minutes, before settling into a 32-point lead with 5:20 to go. Anna Riley's jumper with 14 seconds left ended the scoring on the night, leading to the final score of 77-47.

The Hawks look to go 2-0 in early SUNYAC action on Saturday, Dec. 3, when they host Buffalo State (4-1, 0-1 SUNYAC) at 2 p.m. at the Hawk Center.