Hartwick Battles Back to Defeat Alfred
Trailing by 11 points with 6:16 left in the second half, the Hartwick men's basketball team rallied with a huge 20-4 run to come from behind and defeat visiting Alfred 90-85 in the semifinals of the Empire 8 Tournament at a loud Lambros Arena on Friday night. The Hawks advance to tomorrow's championship game for the first time in three years.
Senior forward
Jared Suderley led all scorers with 27 points on 10-of-15 shooting.
Joey Lufkin and
Kyle Bradley both contributed 18 points each. Bradley also pulled down a team high eight rebounds.
Matt Petruccione,
Anthony Keane, and
Christian Laputka all chipped in seven points.
The Saxons were led by Thomas Tsatsis' 19 points. Ryan Mahon added 10 points.
AU scored the first two buckets of the contest before the Hawks came back to tally five straight points to lead 5-4 at 17:46. The two teams exchanged baskets but Hartwick would start to pull ahead and went up 20-14 at 13:54.
It was a back and forth game for the rest of the half as both teams answered each other's shots. Alfred had its biggest lead of the first period, 49-44, with 52 seconds remaining to play in the frame. The Hawks cut the lead to three points after
Glenn Gavan converted a layup with 29 seconds showing on the clock. The Saxons went into the locker room with a 49-46 advantage.
Mahon scored the first points on the second half on a three-pointer just six seconds in to put Alfred ahead 52-46. That score would stand for over three and a half minutes as the teams traded missed shots. 'Wick did cut the deficit down to one point, 52-51, at 15:40 with five straight points coming from Suderley.
A 13-2 spurt by AU put the Saxons ahead 63-53 at 12:37. The Hawks chipped away at the Alfred lead and got to within two points, 68-66, at 9:30. A 13-4 run by Alfred, however, increased the Saxon advantage to 81-70 with 6:16 left to play in the game.
From that point, Hartwick embarked on its game-turning run that switched the advantage to its favor. Back-to-back layups from Suderley and Keane closed the Saxon lead to 81-74 at 5:48. Free throws from Laputka and Lufkin made it a four-point contest, 81-77, with 3:37 remaining to play. A Bradley layup reduced the deficit to two points. Mahon tried to answer for the Saxons with a three-point basket but was off the mark and Bradley pulled down the rebound. Bradley was subsequently fouled by Kincel and went to the line to potentially tie the game up. Bradley sank both of his attempts and the game was knotted up at 81-all with 2:43 left to play.
Alfred looked to go ahead by three but Mike Hill's attempt was off and the Hawks regained possession. With just under two minutes remaining, Suderley connected on his only three-point attempt of the night to give the Hawks their first lead of the second half, 84-81. The two teams traded layups with 'Wick still holding a three-point advantage with 53 seconds showing on the game clock.
Tsatsis tried to tie the game at 42 seconds but missed and Keane came away with the rebound as 'Wick ran down the clock. Suderley converted the second of two free throws to give the Hawks an 89-85 edge with 12 ticks left. The Saxons subsequently turned the ball over as Keane came up with the steal and sank the front end of two free throw attempts to ice the game for Hartwick.
The teams were close in overall shooting with Hartwick holding a slight advantage making 29-of-61 (47.5%) of its shots to Alfred's 32-of-71 (45.1%). The Saxons were a smidge better in three-point attempts (11-of-33, 33.3% to 5-of-19, 26.3% for the Hawks). 'Wick did outperform AU on the free throw line as it was good on 27-of-32 attempts (84.4%) to 10-of-14 (71.4%) for the Saxons.
The Hawks led in the paint, 44-38, points off turnovers, 12-9, and second chance points, 15-11. Hartwick also had the advantage on the glass, 40-35.
Hartwick will play Nazareth in the championship tomorrow afternoon at 3 p.m. at Lambros Arena. The Hawks will be looking for its second title after winning in 2011.