ONEONTA, NY – Maggie Kirby (Selkirk, NY/Bethlehem) scored 19-plus for the fourth straight game and Giuliana Pritchard (Amsterdam, NY/Amsterdam) contributed all over the stat sheet on Saturday evening, as the Hartwick women's basketball team blew by Houghton in Lambros Arena, 77-48. The win bumps the Hawks up to 9-7 on the year and 3-2 in the Empire 8, while Houghton drops to 2-13 overall and 0-4 in the E8.
'Wick set the tone from the get-go, taking a 22-7 lead by the time the first quarter had finished. With a slim 6-4 lead over three-and-a-half minutes in, they scored the next ten points to grab control. Four different Hawks scored on the run, as Maggie Kirby led the way with four points. After Houghton's Alex Steele knocked down a three-pointer, Molly Kirby (Selkirk, NY/Bethlehem), Taylor Verboven (Columbia, CT/E.O. Smith), and Maggie Kirby made buckets on three consecutive possessions for the final points of the stanza.
Things evened up in quarter two; both sides scored 14 points. The Highlanders got as close as 11 after an Emie Taylor jumper with 5:56 on the clock, and the Hawks extended their lead out to 17 shortly after Maggie Kirby was fouled behind the arc and hit all three free throws, but the lead remained 15 at the half, with the score 36-21.
Hartwick got back in business in the third quarter, again outscoring Houghton by 15, this time by a 25-10 margin. The Highlanders got the first points of the half, but 'Wick responded with the next eight for a 44-23 lead. After a few minutes of back-and-forth ball, Isley Sterling (Wilton, NY/Saratoga Springs) kicked off a 9-0 stretch with a jumper. She popped in another not long after a Mary Schoenherr (Unionville, CT/Farmington) bucket, and Pritchard banged in a three with 1:20 to go for a 56-28 advantage. A few realtime minutes later, Pritchard sank another three, this one at the buzzer, making the lead 30 at 61-31 headed to the fourth.
Houghton narrowly outscored Hartwick in the fourth, 17-16, but the game was all but over by then. Molly Kirby gave the Hawks their largest lead of the night with a three under a minute into the fourth, and the score more-or-less held steady from there. Rhiannon Groll (Red Bank, NJ/Boonton) hit a couple jumpers later in the quarter before the buzzer sounded with the Hawks leading by 29.
Pritchard was all over the place for 'Wick in her team-high 33 minutes. She matched her career-high with 20 points on 8-of-14 shooting (and a perfect 3-of-3 from deep), just missed a double-double at nine rebounds, set a career high in steals (six), and had five assists and two blocks to boot. Maggie Kirby scored 21 points on an efficient 7-of-12 shooting and 3-of-4 from beyond the arc, her fifth time in eight games with 20 or more points. She also picked up four rebounds and an assist. Schoenherr was the only other Hawk in double digits, at 12 points on a nice 6-of-9 from the field, four rebounds, four assists, three steals, and a block. Molly Kirby had five points, four assists, and two rebounds, Verboven ended up at four points, five boards, two assists, and a steal, and Langston Williams (Delmar, NY/Bethlehem) secured her first collegiate points in the third quarter on a lay-up.
Taylor led Houghton with 12 points on 5-of-8 shooting, and joined Brooke Lewandowski and Caitlyn Cybart with a team-high seven rebounds. Hannah Cybart had 11 points and five boards, while Cori Beck matched her 11 points, had three rebounds, four assists, and three steals.
Hartwick was lethal from the field today, shooting 51.7% to Houghton's 35.7%. The difference was starker from deep, as 'Wick shot 58.3% to the Highlanders' 13.3%. Houghton did lead the rebounding battle, 38-32, but the Hawks ended up with a big lead in the turnover race, giving it up nine times to the visitors' 20. This led to a large 24-10 difference in points off of turnovers.
'Wick will try and keep it going next weekend when they travel to Rochester for a tough back-to-back. The Hawks will take on Nazareth on Friday, January 24 at 7:30 p.m. and head down the street the next day at 4 p.m. for a meeting with St. John Fisher.
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