The Oswego State women's basketball team fought hard but fell to the New Paltz Hawks by a score of 57-43 on Tuesday evening. With the loss, the team drops to 5-11 overall and 2-7 in SUNYAC play while New Paltz improves to 8-6 (4-4).
New Paltz got out to an early 5-0 lead on a Madison Van Pelt layup and Paige Niemeyer 3-pointer. Oswego would close the lead back to one at 7-6 on a 3-pointer from Courtney Ameele. Both teams were sloppy as they combined for fifteen turnovers in the first quarter. New Paltz would push out to a 10-6 first quarter lead with three additional free throws.
The Lakers got a pair of quick layups by senior Zana Dillard to begin the second quarter to tie the game at 10 apiece. New Paltz would answer back with a 8-0 run of their own during the next four minutes of play. Freshman Raiven Encarnacion would end that run with a three with 4:20 left in the half to cut the lead to 18-13. The Hawks would put in two more layups before a Quincey Zimmerman 3-point bucket would make the score 22-16 with a minute left in the half. A Lindsay Bettke three with two seconds left would conclude scoring in the half and extend the New Paltz lead to a game-high nine points.
Both teams defended well in the first half with the Lakers shooting 21.4% and the Hawks 23.5%. The difference was from the free throw line where New Paltz made eight trips, converting on seven while Oswego made their only attempt.
The third quarter was more of the same as New Paltz would extend out to a 33-20 advantage at the 5:20 mark on a Rachel Simon jumper. The next four minutes were all Oswego as the team put together a 15-0 run to grab their first lead of the contest at 35-33. Five different Lakers scored buckets during the run with Zimmerman leading the way with five points. A New Paltz jumper with 17 seconds left in the quarter by Amanda Skopetos would send the teams into the fourth quarter tied at 35.
New Paltz would open up the fourth on an 16-2 run during the first six minutes of play and outscore the Lakers 22-8 overall in the quarter to put the game away.
Ameele and Zimmerman led the Lakers with 10 points each while Rachael Windhausen added eight. Bettke led the Hawks with a game-high 12.
The women's basketball team returns to action this Saturday at 1 p.m. when they host the Red Dragons of SUNY Cortland.
