BUFFALO – The State University of New York at New Paltz women's basketball team (18-9) overcame a 17-point first-half deficit, but SUNY Oneonta (18-8) wound up ousting the Hawks from the 2012 State University of New York Athletic Conference (SUNYAC) Women's Basketball Championship Tournament in a hard-fought 66-63 overtime decision in semifinal action on Friday night at the Buffalo State Sports Arena on the campus of Buffalo State. The loss marked the end to New Paltz's 2011-12 season.

With the win, third-seeded Oneonta advances to Saturday's championship game, which will be held at 4 p.m. against the winner of the other semifinal contest between fifth-seeded SUNY Cortland and top-seeded Buffalo State.

The second-seeded Hawks dropped the semifinal rubber match against the Red Dragons, as Oneonta and New Paltz have met in the conference tournament semifinals each of the past three years. The Hawks prevailed in a four-overtime affair in 2010, but the Red Dragons have won each of the past two postseason meetings between the two programs.

New Paltz mounted a miraculous comeback, trailing by as many as 17 in the first half before cutting the lead down to 14 heading into the intermission. The Hawks outscored the Red Dragons, 34-20, in the second half to force overtime, but Oneonta made New Paltz miss the only two field goals it took down the stretch in the extra period to come away with the win.

The Red Dragons stormed out to a 15-3 lead early, with Madison Slagle's three-pointer giving them a 12-point edge. Oneonta held a double-digit lead until senior forward Shanay Bradley (Bronx, N.Y./New Explorers) cut the deficit to eight with 3:44 remaining in the first half, but the Red Dragons went on a 9-0 tear to forge a 17-point advantage. Senior point guard Kaitlin Clifford (Staten Island, N.Y./Curtis) stopped the run with a trey 1:22 before the break, and that bucket wound up providing the halftime score of 37-23.

New Paltz kicked off the second half by scoring five straight points, but Oneonta answered with a 5-0 spurt of its own. Both teams traded baskets until the Hawks went on a 7-0 scoring spree, and a layup by Bradley made it a five-point game (47-42) with 9:38 to go in regulation. New Paltz continued to whittle away at the lead, and Clifford cashed in on a fastbreak layup with 4:29 remaining in the second half to give the Hawks their first tie score of the ballgame.

Junior guard Maliqua Fisher (North Babylon, N.Y./North Babylon) knocked down a pair of free throws with 2:55 to go in the second stanza to put New Paltz up for the first time in the tilt, and senior guard Caitlin Irwin (Brooklyn, N.Y./Bishop Kearney) gave the Hawks their largest lead of the night with 2:05 left on the clock, as she hit a jumper to swell the New Paltz cushion to three (57-54). Gabi Regan made two free throws with just more than a minute remaining to pull the Red Dragons within one, and Samantha Szkotak hit a foul shot with 39 seconds to go to tie the score. Kristin Pappalardo had a chance to give Oneonta the win just before the buzzer, but she misfired on a layup to send the game into overtime.

The Red Dragons scored five straight points to open the extra period, but the Hawks responded with a three-pointer by senior guard Zoe Cohen (Brooklyn, N.Y./The Berkeley Carroll School). After Slagle pushed the edge out to four, Irwin drained a triple to pull New Paltz within one (64-63) with 1:54 to go in the frame. That ended up being the last field goal of the evening, as Oneonta went 2-for-4 at the line down the stretch to hang on for the victory.

New Paltz was hurt by a 43.5 percent (10-of-23) shooting night from the free-throw line and a 36.9 percent (24-of-65) mark from the floor. In addition, Oneonta held the upper hand in rebounds by a 42-39 edge. However, the Red Dragons committed 30 turnovers to the Hawks' 20, and New Paltz dropped in 33 points off Oneonta giveaways, 20 of which came in the second half.

Junior forward Alex McCullough (Delmar, N.Y./Bethlehem Central) gained sole possession of first on the program's career blocks chart with a game-high of two, as she pushed her career total out to 105. That eclipses the former program standard of 103 set by Dana Maul from 1992-94. McCullough equaled Maul's total on Tuesday in the Hawks' quarterfinal win over SUNY Plattsburgh. Offensively, McCullough and Clifford paced the attack with 13 points each, while Bradley had 10 points in 33 minutes of action. Fisher boasted the team-high in rebounds with nine, while Irwin came down with eight boards. Bradley and Irwin tied for New Paltz's top steal total with four.

For Oneonta, Szkotak and Slagle led the way with 16 points each, while Pappalardo chipped in with 15. Pappalardo gathered an impressive stat line, as she pulled down 10 rebounds to complete the double-double and added five steals and two assists.

New Paltz fell one win shy of tying its program mark for single-season victories, but sixth-year head coach Jamie Seward led the Hawks to their sixth consecutive SUNYAC Tournament. In addition, he has won no fewer than 16 games in a single season.