ONEONTA, NY – Mary Schoenherr (Unionville, CT/Farmington) was just one basket away from a triple-double on Friday night at Lambros Arena, but her career highs in rebounds and assists, with 13 apiece, were more than enough to defeat #4 Stevens Institute of Technology, 72-52, and send the top-seeded Hawks to the Empire 8 Finals. Hartwick won their 22nd game of the season, and is now 22-4 and 15-2 in the Empire 8, while the Ducks close out their season at 17-9, 12-5 in conference. This was the fourth time ever that Hartwick and Stevens had met in the Empire 8 Tournament, all in the first round, with the Hawks now having won three of those four games.
Stevens scored the first basket of the game, but that would be the only lead they had the entire night. Hartwick scored the next two buckets to take a 4-2 lead, although the visitors tied the game at four and then again at six 2:38 in. The Hawks took over from there. Schoenherr hit two free throws to kick off an 11-0 run, and was followed by a Carly Johnson (Greenville, NY/Greenville Central) lay-up and Kelly Pine (Hoosick Falls, NY/Hoosick Falls) three-pointer on back-to-back possessions. Johnson later put home a jumper, and Schoenherr had a lay-up with 4:03 to go in the opening quarter, putting Hartwick up, 17-6. Stevens scored four of the next six points, but an Alexa DuBois (Hobart, NY/South Kortright) basket and Maggie Kirby (Selkirk, NY/Bethlehem) three in the quarter's final ninety seconds gave 'Wick a 24-10 lead after one.
The second quarter was a lot lower-scoring than the first, as the teams combined for just twenty points. Pine started it off with a lay-up, but Stevens scored the next five points (including four by Maddi Hahn) to make the lead 11. Hartwick was able to even it out after that, eventually closing a relatively uneventful second period up, 33-21.
The third quarter seemed like an extension of the first, with the Ducks outscoring the Hawks just 4-2 over the first 5:55, making the 'Wick lead ten. Hartwick found their groove again, though, as Schoenherr assisted Pine on a jumper and three-pointer on back-to-back possessions and then tossed a dime to Johnson for another three-ball to stretch the lead out to 18, at 43-25. Stevens closed their deficit to 14 with 1:03 left in the quarter, but five points from Caitlin Corbett (Altamont, NY/Guilderland) in the last minute saw the Hawks enter the fourth quarter with a comfortable 19 point lead, up 52-33.
The first two minutes of the final period were frantic; after a Pine lay-up on the quarter's first possession, four different Ducks scored to once again narrow the lead to 11 with just 1:28 gone by. The Schoenherr-Pine connection came through again, however, as Pine canned a three immediately following that 10-0 run to bring the lead back up to 14. That three was the beginning of a retaliatory 11-0 stretch that saw five points from Pine, four from Johnson, two from Corbett, and three Schoenherr assists. With 3:36 left, the Hawks were up by 22 points. The rest of the game was essentially a formality, and Hartwick moved on to the Finals with a 20-point win when all was said and done.
Schoenherr was all over the place the entire night, scoring eight points in addition to her 13 rebounds and assists. She was just one dime away from tying the program record for most assists in a game at 14, done once by Marybeth Rath and twice by Kathy Hutchins, all in the 1980s. Schoenherr also tied her season high with four steals, and had one block. Pine picked a great time to have her highest scoring output of the year, scoring a game-high 21 points on 9-of-14 shooting and 3-of-6 from three, also grabbing seven rebounds, two steals, a block, and an assist. All-Conference Second Team member Johnson was the second-leading Hawk scorer, with 14 points, and also had three boards, three assists, a block, and a steal. First Teamer Corbett was right behind Johnson with 13 points on 6-of-10 from the field, and also had five rebounds, a game- and season-high five steals, and one assist and block. Honorable Mention Maggie Kirby was the only other Hawk in double digits, with 10 points, four rebounds, three steals, a game- and career-high two blocks, and one assist.
Hartwick shot well from the field at 47.6%, making 30-of-63 overall, easily outshooting Stevens at 29.5%. Neither team was prolific from beyond the arc, with 'Wick outgunning the Ducks 28.0% to 20.0% from three-point land. The Hawks made 14-of-18 free throws, taking advantage of their ten-shot advantage from the charity stripe compared to the visitors' 5-of-8, all in the first half. The hosts narrowly outrebounded Stevens, 42-38, although the Ducks had a 14-12 lead on the offensive glass, leading to a 10-4 difference in second chance points. Both teams turned the ball over a fair bit, with Hartwick giving it up 20 times and Stevens letting it go 22 times. The Hawks had a sizeable advantage in points off of turnovers, however, at 23-12.
Empire 8 First Team All-Star Anna Toke starred for the Ducks, registering a double-double with a team-high 12 rebounds and 11 points. Hahn was Stevens' leading scorer, with 15 points, as well as two rebounds and a steal. Rookie of the Year and Second Teamer Jess Broad was right behind her with 14 points, also dishing out a team-high five assists and grabbing four rebounds and two steals.
The #1 Hawks play again tomorrow in the Empire 8 Championship against the winner of the other Semifinal, #2 Nazareth vs. #3 St. John Fisher. 'Wick split the regular season series with both teams, losing to Nazareth on the road but beating them at home in the middle of a 12-game winning streak, and beating the Cardinals on a last-second three to kick off that winning streak but losing in a dramatic, double-overtime game to snap the streak in the third-to-last game of the regular season. This will be Hartwick's first appearance in the Empire 8 Finals since 2012-13, and a win would give the Hawks their first ever Empire 8 Championship. Tip-off is at 3:30 p.m. at Lambros Arena.
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