ONEONTA, NY – Despite a fourth-quarter push that saw them trim a double-digit deficit to just one with under three minutes to go, the Hartwick women's basketball team's four-game winning streak was snapped by a talented Hamilton College squad. The Continentals did enough down the stretch to nab a 69-63 win and move to 5-1 on the season, while the Hawks drop to 4-3 after their final home game of 2019.
The teams battled through an even first quarter. Hartwick extended their lead to three multiple times, but Hamilton would immediately cut it back to one with a bucket. The Hawks created a little separation towards the end of the first; Mary Schoenherr (Unionville, CT/Farmington) hit a jumper to make the lead five at 15-10 with 38 seconds to go. Hamilton's Marie Steiner immediately responded with her own jumper at the other end, but Kayley Ericson (Franklin, CT/Norwich Free Academy) turned the tables again with a paint shot that beat the buzzer. Hartwick led 17-12 after ten minutes.
The Hawks began the second quarter by finally creating some real separation between them and their visitors. After Schoenherr opened the scoring with a lay-up and Kelcie Zarle fired back with a three-ball, a 7-0 run that saw five points from Kelly Pine (Hoosick Falls, NY/Hoosick Falls) and a basket and an assist from Molly Kirby (Selkirk, NY/Bethlehem) gave Hartwick what would be their largest lead of the night, 26-15 with 6:26 to go in the half. The Continentals were able to regroup, however, scoring the next eight points to bring the deficit back to three with 4:06 on the clock. They kept chipping away, eventually tying the game on a Liz Arnold three with 90 seconds left and taking a 34-32 lead into the locker room after Claire Sehring put in a lay-up on the half's final shot.
Although Giuliana Pritchard (Amsterdam, NY/Amsterdam) re-tied the game in the first minute of the second half, Hamilton went on an 8-0 run to take control of the contest. Carly O'Hern had all eight points, sandwiching a jumper between two threes to give her side a 42-34 advantage. The Continentals extended their lead to ten three times before the period was up, but two Molly Kirby lay-ups (the second a buzzer-beater aided by a Schoenherr steal and assist) brought the score to 50-44 after three quarters.
O'Hern canned another trey to begin the final stanza, lengthening the Hamilton lead to nine, but Hartwick stayed with it. Molly Kirby got fouled and hit two free throws, Maggie Kirby (Selkirk, NY/Bethlehem) had a lay-up on the next possession, and Pine followed with a bucket a minute-plus after that to make the score 53-50. The Continentals resisted the Hawks' attempts to grab the lead away, retaking six-point advantages a few times, but a Schoenherr desperation three beat the shot clock buzzer with 2:52 left to cut the margin to one at 62-61.
The teams went up-and-down the court a couple times without scoring, including a dizzying sequence that saw Sehring grab a board off a Zarle miss from deep and miss three lay-ups while nabbing two more offensive boards. Eventually, Pritchard ended that sequence with a defensive rebound for Hartwick. With just under a minute to go, Zarle tried again from three-point land and hit, giving her team a two-possession lead. Molly Kirby tried to answer on the other end with her own three, but missed the mark. It looked like the ball was tipped by a Continental, altering the trajectory and sending it out-of-bounds, but the referees ruled it an air ball and awarded Hamilton possession. The Continentals missed three of their next four free throws, keeping the hosts in it, but Hartwick could not take advantage, and the visitors held on for the close win.
Molly Kirby had a game-high 17 points on 7-of-15 from the field, one of four Hawks in double figures; she also had three assists, two rebounds, two steals, and a block. Giuliana Pritchard set career highs with 14 rebounds, six assists, and four blocks, all team-highs as well (and the rebounds a game-high). She contributed six points, in addition. Schoenherr was second on the team with 13 points (tying her season high) five rebounds, five assists, and two steals. Maggie Kirby had 12 points and four rebounds, and Pine rounded out the double-digit scorers with 11 points, adding in eight rebounds, five assists, and two steals to boot.
O'Hern led a Hamilton attack that was dominated by three players who combined for 50 of the 69 points. She had 19 on 7-of-11 from the field, including four threes. Arnold was right behind her with 17 points, registering a double-double with 10 rebounds, and Zarle had 14 points, six assists, and three rebounds. Kayla Glemaud contributed with seven rebounds, four points, two blocks, and a steal, and Scout Lansing led all players with seven assists and four steals, as well as three rebounds and three points.
The two teams shot about evenly overall, and Hartwick actually had a slight advantage at 43.9% to 43.1%. The big difference came from beyond the arc; Hamilton was 9-of-20 (45%) from three, while the Hawks were just 3-of-14 (21.4%). The rebounding battle was also close, at 40-38 in favor of Hamilton, and the Continentals gave the ball up 13 times to Hartwick's 16, but the Hawks led 19-13 in points off of turnovers. Hamilton also had the lead in fast break points, at 14-4.
The Hawks are in the midst of a slow stretch of their schedule, with just four more games in two tournaments throughout the next month. They play next against Gettysburg in the St. Vincent Women's Basketball Classic, held in Latrobe, PA, at 5 p.m. on Thursday, December 19, and follow that up with a matchup against Brockport the next day at 4 p.m.
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