Feb 29, 2020
NEW PALTZ, N.Y. – Cortland closed a 15-point second-quarter deficit to one late in the third quarter before coming up short as the Red Dragons lost at New Paltz, 63-53, in the SUNYAC women's basketball tournament championship game.
New Paltz (24-3) repeated as league champion and earned an automatic berth into the NCAA Division III tournament. Cortland (21-6) will await a possible NCAA at-large berth. The Red Dragons entered the week ranked third in the East region behind New Paltz and Ithaca. A total of 20 schools that could have earned automatic bids, but didn't, will receive at-large bids. The 64-team tournament field will be announced on Monday, March 2 at 2:30 p.m. on NCAA.com.
Tournament MVP Maddie Van Pelt led New Paltz with 25 points and 13 rebounds. She was joined on the all-tournament team by Paige Niemeyer and Marion Dietz, who each scored 11 points and grabbed six rebounds. Niemeyer led the Hawks with eight assists and four blocks. Maddie Gillis chipped in with 12 points and nine rebounds.
Nyia Longford (Medford/Longwood) and Beth Bonin (Cicero/Cicero-North Syracuse) represented Cortland on the all-tournament team. Longford led the Red Dragons with 13 points and nine rebounds and Bonin finished with eight points, seven rebounds and four assists. Sarah Tully (East Aurora) totaled 12 points and five rebounds and Joka Oyefeso (Staten Island/Port Richmond) scored a career-best eight points and matched her career best with seven rebounds.
Cortland trailed 21-8 after one quarter, and also lost starting guard Shannon McGuire (West Babylon) to injury late in the opening period. New Paltz's largest lead was 28-13 on a Gillis 3-pointer with 6:53 remaining in the second quarter.
Cortland started cutting into its deficit at that point, scoring six straight points to reduce the margin to nine and eventually getting with eight points at the half, 33-25, after a Maggie Malone (Cornwall) layup with 31 seconds left.
Gillis hit another trey early in the third quarter to put the Hawks up by 11, but Longford scored all of Cortland's points during an ensuing 8-0 run and the Red Dragons were within 36-33 at the 5:43 mark. The closest Cortland got was at 44-43 on a Bonin 3-pointer with 39 seconds left in the third. Van Pelt made a free throw 14 seconds later and New Paltz took a 45-43 lead into the final period.
Cortland trailed by four, 51-47, on Oyefeso's layup with 3:15 left in the game. Cortland missed two 3-pointers on its next possession that could have cut the lead to one, and Dietz made one foul shot at the 2:10 mark and two more each with 1:41 and 1:24 left to extend the host's lead to nine. Cortland got no closer than seven points after that.
New Paltz shot 39 percent in the first half but only 20 percent in the second to finish at 31 percent overall. Cortland also shot 31 percent from the field, but just 27 percent in the second half. The Hawks outscored Cortland by 13 points at the foul line, hitting 22-of-33 attempts compared to the Red Dragons' 9-of-14 shooting. Each team struggled from 3-point range – New Paltz at 26 percent (5-of-19) and Cortland at 15 percent (4-of-27).