ROCHESTER, NY – The Hartwick women's basketball team outscored Nazareth 16-7 in the fourth quarter of a big Empire 8 win on the road Friday night, taking down the Golden Flyers in Rochester, 69-51. The win pushes the Hawks up to 10-7 and 4-2 in the conference, while Nazareth fall to 10-6 and 2-3 in the E8.
The hosts took a 4-0 lead early, but the game was tied at 6 after a Maggie Kirby (Selkirk, NY/Bethlehem) three just over three minutes in. The Hawks bounced out to a 17-12 lead with 2:24 on the clock; that lead was cut to one via back-t0-back Nazareth buckets and boosted back up to three as time expired after Molly Kirby (Selkirk, NY/Bethlehem) put in a lay-up with four seconds to go.
The second quarter saw the same differential as the first, as 'Wick outscored Nazareth 21-18. They led by eight at 28-20 after Molly Kirby put in a three and lay-up in 25 seconds, and after a conventional Nazareth three-point play, boosted that lead to double digits via a Giuliana Pritchard (Amsterdam, NY/Amsterdam) trey and Maggie Kirby lay-in. With the difference at 11 under a minute later, the Golden Flyers went on a 6-0 run to bring their deficit down to five. Hartwick got the lead back up to nine with 24 seconds before the break, but a Kim Davis three with five seconds left, assisted by Isabella Gjonaj, put the score at 40-34 headed into the locker room.
The third quarter had yet another three-point differential, although on just 23 total points between the two sides. Nazareth broke the lead down to just two after Gjonaj followed up a Jadyn Abrams lay-up by taking the ball away and putting in her own lay-up for a 42-40 score with 6:15 to go. Hartwick had built their lead back up to seven under a minute later, though, as Molly Kirby executed a conventional three-point play and Pritchard layed one in. The Hawks led by nine after Maggie Kirby banged home a three with 2:01 to go, and after a couple more points per side that was the margin going into the fourth, with the scoreboard reading 53-44.
Nazareth's Elizabeth White produced the first two points of the quarter on a lay-up 70 seconds in, but that was it for her team for awhile. Hartwick scored the next ten points over five-plus minutes to put the game away, leading 63-46 at the end of the run. Pritchard and Mary Schoenherr (Unionville, CT/Farmington) each had four of the ten, while Maggie Kirby layed in the final two. Standout Golden Flyer Rachel Benedict, who was contained well on the night by the Hawks, broke the monotony with a host bucket, but Hartwick bumped their lead up to 21 with the next six points before settling for the 18-point, 69-51 victory.
Maggie Kirby and Pritchard tied for the game high in points, with 20. Kirby's 20 came on 8-of-13 from the field (3-of-4 from deep) and gave her five consecutive and seven out of nine games with 19 or more points. Pritchard's 20 (tying her career high for the second game in a row) was on 7-of-15 and 2-of-4 from three, and came with five rebounds, three assists, two steals, and a block. Molly Kirby scored in double digits for the third time in four games and was two points shy of her season high with 15 points on 6-of-11 shooting, also tying for the game high with three steals and registering three assists. Schoenherr tied her career high of 14 rebounds, easily a game high, had four assists (also the game high), and eight points.
Nazareth had ten different scorers, led by Benedict. She had 12 points on 6-of-14 but 0-of-4 from three, also leading her team with nine rebounds. Davis was next with nine points and four rebounds, while Abrams had eight points, five boards, three steals, and a block. Gjonaj picked up a game-high three blocks to go with four points, three rebounds, three assists, and a steal.
Hartwick had a sizeable lead in shooting, with a 45.3% clip from the field compared to 37.3% for Nazareth. The difference was starker from three, as 'Wick was above 50% at 7-of-13 (53.8%), while the Golden Flyers shot just 3-of-15 (20.0%). The Hawks also got to the free throw line a lot more, making 14 of 19 attempts (73.7%) compared to the host's 4 of 9 (44.4%).
'Wick narrowly outrebounded their opponents, 37-33, but turned the ball over 15 times to Nazareth's 14. They converted much more efficiently on those turnovers, however, with a 14-5 lead in points off of turnovers.
Hartwick is back to it tomorrow, as they take on a first-place St. John Fisher team that is 5-0 in the Empire 8. That game will be on the Cardinals' campus and tips off at 4 p.m.
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