ONEONTA, NY – Hartwick outscored Oneonta State 31-26 in the second half and trailed by as little as two points with less than three minutes to play, but the host Red Dragons came away with a 54-48 victory over the Hawks to stay unbeaten. 'Wick slips to 3-3 with one game to play in the semester on Thursday at MCLA. Oneonta improves to 5-0.
Freshman Kate Purcell (Buffalo, NY/Mount Mercy) led Hartwick with game-highs of 16 points and nine rebounds. She also sank four of five shots from three-point range. Classmate Maria Foglia (Rensselaer, NY/Catholic Central) added 14 points, seven rebounds, and five assists.
Oneonta used a balanced attack with 10 players finding their way into the scoring column. Senior Rebecca Bucci led the Red Dragons with nine points.
Throughout the second half, Oneonta would open up a lead, Hartwick fought back to close the gap. The largest advantage the Red Dragons held was 10 points at the 5:54 mark when junior Samantha Szkotak hit a jumper just inside the foul line.
Purcell finished off an 8-0 run by Hartwick with a pair of free throws that cut the lead to two points with 2:59 remaining in the game.
A big three-point basket by Bucci gave the Red Dragons some breathing room as the Hawks never got closer than three points for the remainder of the contest.
Oneonta held an early advantage in the contest and steadily built itself a 16-7 lead midway through the opening half. A jumper by Bucci capped an 8-0 run by the Red Dragons to give them a nine point lead.
Hartwick began a run of its own late in the half and closed the gap to 18-17 on a three-pointer by Purcell.
The Red Dragons closed the half with 10 unanswered points to go into halftime with a 28-17 lead. Oneonta's bench outscored the Hawks' bench 15-0 in the first half led by sophomore Kate Wilverding, who had five points off the bench.
Hartwick plays its final game of the semester on Thursday at 5:30 p.m. at Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in North Adams, MA.
