NEW PALTZ, N.Y. – Playing their first SUNYAC contest in the friendly confines of the Hawk Center on Tuesday night, the State University of New York at New Paltz women's basketball team fell to visiting SUNY Cortland 70-64.
Senior forward Courtney Irby (Farmingdale, N.Y./Farmingdale) led the Hawks (4-4, 1-2 SUNYAC) with 19 points and 10 rebounds, knocking in a trio of three pointers. Senior guard/forward Kit Small (Slingerlands, N.Y./Academy of the Holy Names) followed with 11 points and seven rebounds.
Earlier in the evening, Small was recognized for scoring her 1,000th career point this season, becoming just the fourth student-athlete in program history to achieve this milestone.
Sophomore guard Lindsay Bettke (Pelham, N.Y./The Ursuline School) notched 10 points while senior guard/forward Morgan Roessler (Massapequa, N.Y./Massapequa) narrowly missed a double-double of her own with nine points and 10 boards.
For the Red Dragons (3-3, 2-0 SUNYAC), Alyssa Crosby scored a game-high 21 points behind 11-of-17 free throw shooting and grabbed a contest-best 13 rebounds. Cassidy
Chapko tallied 15 points and Stephanie Rice notched 10 points off the bench.
In the first quarter, the Hawks fell behind 5-0 and ended the period behind 17-9. But New Paltz bounced back in the second stanza and outscored Cortland 15-10 to trail just 27-24 at intermission.
The Hawks opened up the second half with back-to-back three's by Bettke and freshman guard Marion Dietz (Hopewell Junction, N.Y./John Jay-East Fishkill) to grab a 30-27 lead. The game went back-and-forth, eventually winding up being tied at 38-38 with 3:52 on the clock. Cortland went on a 7-2 spurt to close out the third quarter.
New Paltz climbed to within one (48-47) following an and-one by Small with 7:19 to play in the game. However, Cortland would not let the lead slip past two points for the remainder of the contest and stretched the deficit to 10 (68-58) with 31 seconds to go.
The Hawks will look to respond on Saturday, Dec. 10 as they host SUNY Oneonta at 4 p.m. in a Catskill Cup rivalry contest. Oneonta currently leads the rivalry this season, 11-8.