Hawks Reach 20 Wins; Stevens Clinches E8 Berth; Utica Powers to Second E8 Win
Hartwick 72, Houghton 49
Hartwick played a dominant second half in a 72-49 victory over host Houghton College on Friday night to claim its sixth straight victory. The win improves the Hawks' overall record to 20-4 marking the third straight season the team has reached 20 wins.
'Wick out-scored the Highlanders by a margin of 39-22 in the second half to aid in the win. The Hawks forced 19 turnovers in the game which they converted into 24 points. Hartwick's bench also chipped in 27 points in the contest.
The Hawks jumped out to an early 7-3 lead following a Taylor Vonasek layup with 2:34 elapsed in the game. An 8-2 Highlander run, however, would put the hosts in front by an 11-9 margin just two and a half minutes later. A Maria Foglia three-point basket at 14:20 would regain the Hawks' advantage and they led for the rest of the night.
A Brittney Dumas layup gave Hartwick its biggest lead of the half up to that point, 25-18, with just over seven minutes left on the clock. The Hawks matched that margin two more times over the next four minutes but each time the Highlanders responded. The Hawks increased the lead to eight with three minutes left before Houghton trimmed it to six at the half, 33-27.
Early in the second half, Houghton narrowed the gap to a single point, but Hartwick scored 13 of the next 18 points to build the advantage back up to nine, 46-37.
The Hawks led by a count of 46-40 with just under 13 minutes left to play but they would score the next 18 points over the next five minutes to pull away as they built a 64-40 lead. The Hartwick defense forced the Highlanders into nine missed shots and three turnovers in the span.
The Highlanders finally ended the drought at the 6:16 mark but the damage was done. The Hawks led by at least 20 points the rest of the way in the 23-point victory.
Dumas would shoot 50% (8-of-16) from the floor in the game. She grabbed a game-high seven rebounds and tied for a game-high with four assists. Foglia made five of her nine shots, including three three-pointers while also dishing four assists.
Stevens 60, Elmira 59
The Stevens Institute of Technology women's basketball team secured a spot in the Empire 8 Conference Championship with a 60-59 victory over Elmira College on Friday night in Canavan Arena.
The Ducks (17-8, 9-5) locked up the No. 3 seed in next weekend's conference tournament with a nail-biting win at a venue and time to still be announced. Stevens opened up the contest on a 9-2 run over Elmira (16-8, 7-6) and remained in control until the Soaring Eagles took a 25-23 lead with 5:27 to go in the first half.
From there, the game was tied three times and the lead changed hands five times until Elmira went into the break with a slim, 31-30, edge. In the first half, freshmen
Erica Guketlov and
Daphne Ginn each scored eight points. Both went 3-for-4 from the field in the opening 20 minutes, while Guketlov made each three-point attempt and Ginn drained her lone shot from long range. Guketlov finished the game with 13 points, three rebounds, two steals and two assists, while Ginn tallied all her points in the first half.
In the second half, the scored remained within one point on each side until Elmira went up, 46-43, with 14:30 left in regulation. The Soaring Eagles then went up by eight, 51-43, on a three-ball from Jessica Zoltowski with 11:30 on the clock. Stevens continued to chip away at the deficit over the final 11 minutes and scored the game's final basket with 53 seconds left on a steal and layup from
Avis Benjamin to take its first lead since the 15:32 mark. Right after Elmira advanced the ball past mid-court, Benjamin swiped the ball away and drove down the middle of the floor for the game-winning hoop.
Elmira had three chances to regain the lead but missed each field goal attempt.
The Ducks snagged 43 rebounds and 19 on the offensive end as a team and shot 36.5-percent (23-for-63) from the field. Elmira shot 39.6% overall but committed 23 turnovers.
Utica 52, Nazareth 41
The Utica College women's basketball team led for the majority of the contest on its way to a 52-41 victory over visiting Nazareth College in Empire 8 Conference action at the Clark Athletic Center on Friday night. UC's
Bridget Greenwald netted 18 points and grabbed 15 rebounds to secure her 11th double-double of the season. Greenwald now averages 10.9 points and 11.3 rebounds per game this season.
Utica used a 20-7 run in a span of 12:12 in the first half to take a ten point lead, 20-10, with 6:45 to go in the first half of play. Greenwald led the push with eight points, while the UC defense held the Golden Flyers to just 2-of-16 shooting from the floor in the stretch.
An 8-0 run early in the second half extended Utica's lead to 11 points, 32-21, with 13:42 remaining. Naz answered with a 15-10 run in the next 8:20 of action to cut their deficit to six points, 42-36, with 5:22 remaining. The Pioneers punched right back to secure the victory with a 9-0 run in a span of 4:43 to take a 51-36 lead with just 39 seconds left.