Box Score
ONEONTA, NY- Led by
Jared Suderley's (Newport, NY/West Canada Valley) 32 points, the Hartwick men's basketball team won its fourth game in a row as the Hawks defeated visiting Morrisville State 83-68 on Saturday afternoon at Lambros Arena. The Hawks improve their record to 5-2 while the Mustangs drop to 3-3.
Suderley registered his first double-double of the season as he also added 10 rebounds.
Kyle Bradley (Cornwall, NY/Mansfield University) neared a triple-double on the afternoon scoring 10 points, grabbing eight rebounds, and dishing out seven assists while adding two blocks and two steals.
Aaron Laing (Laurens, NY/Laurens) just missed a double-double as he scored nine points and picked up eight boards.
Hartwick's bench also played well led by
Peter Melanson's (Little Compton, RI/Bishop Staing) nine points. Melanson shot 4-for-4 in field goals and has made his last 11 shots.
The Mustangs were led by Brandon Banks who scored 17 points and 6-of-11 shooting and had five rebounds. Ryan Collins added 11 points and six rebounds.
“We played a great first half and we were able to get up by a good amount in the first half and then hold off Morrisville in the second half, said head coach
Todd McGuinness after the game. “Jared played very well today and Kyle really controlled the second half.”
'Wick looked to run away with the game as it led 45-18 at halftime. Morrisville did lead early in the first half, 9-5, at 16:07 but aided by Suderley's nine points in the first 4:47 of the game, the Hawks would tie and then take the lead on Suderley's layup and free throw to go up 10-9. It was part of a huge 27-2 Hawks run that saw Hartwick leap ahead 32-11 with 6:16 remaining until halftime.
The Mustangs would be held to just seven points the rest of the half as the Hartwick defense forced Morrisville into bad shots. 'Wick controlled the paint 18-8 and got a lift from the bench which outscored Morrisville's 16-3.
The second half was quite a different story in that despite the huge deficit, the Mustangs would not go down quietly. After Laing hit a jumper to make it 58-28 Hawks at the 13:23 mark, Morrisville began to chip away at the lead with a 12-2 run to make it 60-41 Hartwick. It was still a 19-point Hartwick lead, 66-47, with 8:13 remaining to play in the game but it would be as close as the Mustangs could get as the Hawks fended off any notion of a comeback.
Hartwick shot 50% from the field (29-of-58) to Morrisville's 32.3 % (21-65). The Hawks converted 41.2 % of its three-point shots (7-of-17) compared to the Mustangs' 28% (7-of-25).
Hartwick returns to the hardwood on Tuesday night in its Empire 8 opener against Utica. Game time will be at 8 p.m.
