CORTLAND, N.Y. – Nyia Longford (Medford/Longwood) scored a career-high 19 points, capped by four free throws to seal the victory in the last 13 seconds, as Cortland defeated visiting New Paltz, 61-55, in a battle of the SUNYAC co-leaders.

Cortland, which is the fourth "others receiving votes" team in the latest D3hoops.com national poll, won its 11 straight game to improve to 13-1 overall and 7-0 in the SUNYAC. New Paltz, the defending SUNYAC champion, had its six-game win streak halted and is now 11-3 overall and 6-1 in the conference.

Longford was 5-of-13 from the field and 8-for-8 from the foul line and finished with 19 points and six rebounds. Beth Bonin (Cicero/Cicero-North Syracuse) scored 15 points, set a Cortland career high with nine rebounds, and handed out four assists, and Shannon McGuire (West Babylon) tallied 13 points and led the Red Dragons with six assists. Sarah Tully (East Aurora) added nine points, seven rebounds and a career-high four blocked shots.

Paige Niemeyer led the Hawks with 23 points and three blocked shots and was one of three New Paltz players to rebound in double figures with 10 boards. Philesha Teape totaled 15 points and 14 rebounds and Maddie Van Pelt ended with eight points and 11 rebounds.

Both teams turned in strong defensive efforts. Cortland finished at 34 percent shooting from the field overall and 25 percent (5-of-20) from 3-point range. New Paltz was limited to 29 percent overall shooting and 14 percent (4-of-28) from the arc. Cortland went 14-of-18 from the foul line (13-for-15 in the second half) and New Paltz made all seven of its free throws.

Cortland jumped out to a 9-0 lead less than five minutes into the game, but New Paltz closed to within 11-9 with 2:35 left and trailed by four, 15-11, at the end of one quarter. The teams were tied three times in the second quarter, and Cortland entered the locker room up 25-24 at halftime.

New Paltz held a pair of one-point leads in the first three minutes of the third quarter, the last at 28-27 on a Van Pelt layup. Cortland responded with seven straight points, the last five by Tully, and led 34-28 with 5:16 remaining in the third. The guests closed back to within a point with 24 seconds remaining, but Meghan Flanagan's (Rochester/Brighton) 3-pointer with 12 ticks left sent Cortland into the fourth quarter up 41-37.

Cortland matched its largest lead at 50-41 with 6:24 remaining in the game after back-to-back Bonin jumpers. New Paltz stayed tough, however, and was eventually back to within 57-55 on a Niemeyer 3-pointer with 15 seconds left. Longford, however, sank two free throws with 13 seconds left and another two with seven seconds remaining to close out the game.

Cortland hits the road for its next four games, starting with SUNYAC contests at Plattsburgh Friday at 5:30 p.m. and at Potsdam Saturday at 2 p.m.