New Paltz Sports Information Department
Scranton, PA — The State University of New York at New Paltz season came to end Friday at the University of Scranton in the first round of the NCAA Tournament to Babson, 79-66.
The Beavers (20-7 overall) took the lead midway through the second quarter and opened up an eight-point cushion the Hawks (20-7) never recovered from.
Trailing by as many as 10 in the fourth, SUNY New Paltz fought back to cut the deficit to six with three minutes to go but Babson answered with an and-1 on the other end, and after missing the ensuing free throw picked up the offensive board for a put-back to create a four-point swing and re-established a double-digit lead to help seal the win.
"There was a number of those plays," said Hawks coach Jamie Seward. "We hit a 3 and then we'd let them get one right back or we let them get right to the basket for an easy basket. That was something we talked about during the game and at halftime. We can't really make a run if we don't string some stops together here and they're a good offensive team and we knew that. We thought we could've done a better job of keeping them out of the paint and we just weren't able to."
SUNY New Paltz got inside early with most of their points coming inside the paint on dribble drives. Fitzgerald answered an early 3 by the Beavers with back-to-back buckets to give her team a 16-15 lead. Jenny Walton got in on the action, driving and finishing with her left to help in the 18-15 lead at the break.
The Hawks weren't as efficient shooting the ball in the second quarter, making just 25 percent from the field, which included a pair of good looking 3's that was halfway down from Lexi Van Vorst that careened out. Babson in turn started gaining momentum and took the lead at 24-22 after earning an and-1 on the other side of the floor, which it kept the remainder of the game.
The Beavers lead ballooned to as many as eight in the second half after a made 3 from Kelly Walsh with less than a minute to go, as SUNY New Paltz struggled on the glass and were one-and-done on the offensive end, while Babson earned second chance opportunities on the other side of the floor.
Babson out-rebounded the Hawks, 19-15 in the first half, while shooting 50 percent with SUNY New Paltz in early foul trouble as leading scorer Brianna Fitzgerald was forced to sit after garnering her third foul in the second quarter.
Megan Bauman had a big game for the Beavers, dishing out 10 assists with her 13 points to finish with a double-double on the night.
"We allowed too much dribble penetration and it led to a lot of the offensive rebounds they got," Seward said. "Only a couple in the first half, but they were costly ones that they scored on and then they got really big ones in the second half that anytime we made a run, got it to five or six, they got an offensive rebound that they scored on. It's just not being able to keep them out of the paint. [Bauman] is really good at creating and we wanted to try and guard her one-on-one and not help as much, but we got stuck coming up a little bit too much and she found people. She created a lot of easy baskets for them and their bigs moved without the ball well and put themselves in position to get some easy ones."
Babson created a 12-point lead midway through third quarter, but back-to-back plays by Fitzgerald and a fast-break bucket by Serravillo, finishing strong for the and-1 following a block by Abby Korzekwinski trimmed the difference to seven. Serravillo forced a turnover on the ensuing defensive possession leading to a transition bucket by Madison Mullman running the floor to cut the score, 41-36.
The Beavers answered with consecutive scores in the paint, but Mullman came up clutch from the perimeter swishing from 3 to get the difference back to five, but SUNY New Paltz couldn't sustain the momentum as an offensive rebound gave Babson the final possession of the quarter, which led to two more points before the period to up the lead to 47-40.
The Hawks scored 26 points in the final period to keep up offensively and started earning trips to the line but couldn't stop Babson defensively as the Beavers continued working in the paint. The Beavers ended up out-rebounding SUNY New Paltz 40-34 and scored 50 of their final 79 points in the paint with 12 second-chance points after going off for 32 points in the final quarter of play.
"You get to this time of year you got to go finish and earn it," Seward said. "You're not going to get bailed out with weak calls, so you have to go and finish strong and we did that early and we did that late, but that second quarter in particular we struggled putting the ball in the basket and they're too good of an offensive team and they opened it up. That was kind of the deficit we were playing back and forth there that they created in the second quarter."
The deficit grew to 14 early in the fourth, but SUNY New Paltz continued to grind and earn points back after getting into the bonus early in the quarter. Fitzgerald brought the lead to nine after earning an and-1 with six minutes left, but Babson once again scored two in the paint next time down the floor. Serravillo hit from 3 with less than five minutes to go and got her team within eight, but an offensive rebound led to another bucket by Bauman and created a double-digit cushion once again.
Van Vorst cut the score to single digits one last time with a made 3 at 1:08, but the Hawks were forced to foul as time ticked down with Babson icing the game on the foul line.
Fitzgerald managed the early foul trouble to play a team-high 37 minutes and finished with a game-high 23 points on 8-for-15 from the floor with a team-leading seven rebounds, to go along with a steal. Maddie Gillis followed with 11 points on 5-for-13 shooting with five rebounds, three assists and two steals. Serravillo finished with nine points, two rebounds, two assists and two steals.
Despite the early end to the season, the Hawks return their entire roster next season, as they work toward another conference championship title and a deeper NCAA Tournament run.
"We've definitely been through a lot," Seward said. "It was a different locker room that I've ever been a part of after your last loss of the season, because there are not seniors… it was different. You usually go in with seniors and talk about the year that they had and we did that, but it was also taking this feeling and embracing it. Hopefully, these guys will be back and it's not just the first or only time that they will be playing in the NCAA Tournament. We just talked about that and yeah, it's been a crazy year for other reasons… and this team continued to persevere through and continued to get better and come back every day with an enthusiastic attitude. It was a pleasure to coach them."
