New Paltz, NY — The State University of New York at New Paltz returned to its rightful place atop the conferences best as it once again clinched the SUNYAC Championship crown.  
 
The Hawks rode a hot start against a tough No. 3 seeded SUNY Geneseo team Saturday in the Hawk Center and withstood a rally late to secure their program's seventh title and fourth in the last five seasons after earning a 52-47 win in the conference finale.
 
All year, SUNY New Paltz was determined to erase the memory of losing on its home floor after securing the top seed in the tournament. It overcame a gritty Oswego team Friday night in the semifinal round before withstanding one last test against the rival Knights — a team who they defeated four times in the conference finals prior. The Hawks played their typical swarming style defensively and created havoc for Geneseo when it touched the ball, which allowed them to capitalize off turnovers early and establish a 14-point lead. A good Knights team chiseled their way back, but SUNY New Paltz never withheld the lead as it closed out on the victory and hoisted the SUNYAC trophy in front of a packed home crowd.
 
"Obviously, it was huge with the way the game played out after that," said Hawks coach Jamie Seward of the early lead. "We have that ability to create offense with our defense and maybe we don't do it as often or as well as we've done it in the past, but we still have that ability to get some offense with our defense and that's what we did. We were aggressive off the ball, and I think we jumped on them."
 
SUNY New Paltz were aggressive defensively and forced turnovers, which led to points as it got out to a 9-0 lead. The offense was spread around in the stretch as Abby Korzekwinski, Julia Sabatino, Jenny Walton and Madison Mullan all contributed in the run.
 
Geneseo broke up the stretch with an and-1 at the hoop, as Walton got caught on the reach just as the shot clock buzzer sounded. The Knights missed the ensuing free throw with Brianna Fitzgerald picking up the defensive board and going coast-to-coast to push the lead to 11-2. Good defense by Sabatino led to an easy steal for Walton, which turned into three points by Fitzgerald who swished behind the perimeter. The basket not only extended the lead to 14-2 at the media timeout, but also pushed Fitzgerald atop the program's all-time scoring list, surpassing 2017 alumna Kit Small for the record.
 

"Our defense was 100 percent the reason of why we had so much momentum on offense," Fitzgerald said of the quick start offensively. "The second the ball was up in the air we attacked them defensively. Super physical, a lot of steals and they couldn't really even get a dribble in. We were swarming them. We picked up some fouls so we fell back on the pressure a little bit, but that's just something that we have to work on going forward, maintaining that high-intensity pressure without fouling."
 
Mullman erupted the raucous Hawk Center crowd with another swish from the arc to give SUNY New Paltz its largest lead of the day at 26-9 early in the second. Geneseo came back to life after hitting back-to-back 3's to cut the score, 26-14, with about six minutes left which helped propel an 11-0 run to end the half, cutting the difference to 28-20 at the break.
 
The Hawks struggled finding the bottom of the hoop and extended its scoring draught to nearly 10 minutes, as Geneseo got within one after two made free throws by Kerry Dennin midway through the third quarter. Sabatino finally ended the scoreless stretch and laid two in at the basket off a feed from Walton. She then stayed aggressive after picking up an offensive board off a miss from 3-point range by Semaiah Williams and got herself to the foul line where she made both. The two teams traded points until Walton gave her team some breathing room after draining a shot from behind the arc off a pass from Korzekwinski. Mullman then re-established a seven-point lead for the hosts as they entered the fourth up, 39-32.
 
 
Geneseo hit an early triple to get within four to open up the fourth, but Fitzgerald flexed the advantage back to seven after earning an and-1, attacking the basket and finishing with contact to complete the traditional three-point play. Walton tacked onto the lead with a make in the paint before Fitzgerald hit another in the mid-range to bring the cushion back up to 11 with four minutes left.
 
Kerry Dennin scored the first points of the quarter for the Knights with about 1:30 to go in the game, hitting on the block and taking contact for a three-point play to bring the deficit to within single digits. Mackenzie Regle then stripped Walton of the ball and scored quickly to put some pressure on SUNY New Paltz as the difference became six with about a minute left.  
Sabatino got to the line and made 1-of-2 before Dennin connected again underneath to trim the score to 47-42 with less than a minute. Fitzgerald shot and made both attempts from the charity stripe as time ticked down, but Kiley Snow came up clutch and drained a shot off a ball screen to keep the Knights alive as the score stood at 49-45 with about 25 seconds left.
 
Sabatino then iced the game in the final seconds as she made 3-for-4 in the final 10 seconds to close out on her second SUNYAC title of her career.
 
"I think all year we felt the feeling of losing in the championship last year. That fueled us all season and it still does," Walton said. "It's just amazing to win."
 
"I think we approached it in a better way this year too knowing that we hate that feeling," Sabatino added. "We were going to do everything in our power to never be in that situation again."
 
Fitzgerald finished with her 11th double-double of the season after scoring a team-high 16 points, while grabbing 10 rebound with two blocks, two steals and one assist. Walton followed with 13 points, three rebounds, two steals and an assist. Sabatino totaled 10 points, three rebounds and five assists. Korzekwinski and Williams combined for 18 rebounds, while Mullman had nine points and three rebounds off the bench.
 
"I think everyone who came in really made a difference like Semaiah coming in and getting two huge rebounds for us. It just gets us going because we get to move the ball more, we get to work together and that's how we work well.
 
Fitzgerald was named tournament MVP with Sabatino and Walton named to the All-Tournament team, joining Geneseo's Dennin and Reigle and Oswego's Giavanna White-Principio.
 
"I think everyone who came in really made a difference like Semaiah coming in and getting two huge rebounds for us. It just gets us going because we get to move the ball more, we get to work together and that's how we work well," Sabatino said.
 
The win improved the Hawks record to 24-3 overall and cemented an automatic bid into the NCAA Tournament, notching its TK-straight appearance on the national stage. They await who and were they will be playing with the selection show scheduled for Monday.
 
"All those lessons that we learned from that championship game really carried over to this season," Fitzgerald continued. "Those little things are what we've been working on throughout the entire season just trying to get better every single day and once we reached that nameless, faceless opponent, hopefully next week we'll be here hosting and we'll take away two W's."
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All-Tournament Team:
Brianna Fitzgerald (New Paltz) — MVP
Julia Sabatino (New Paltz)
Jenny Walton (New Paltz)
Kerry Dennin (Geneseo)
Mackenzie Reigle (Geneseo)
Giavanna White-Principio (Oswego)

Post-Game Presser with Highlights Featuring coach Jamie Seward, Julia Sabatino, Jenny Walton & Brianna Fitzgerald


Post-Game Presser Featuring coach Alyssa Polosky and Kerry Dennin


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