Box Score
ONEONTA, NY- Trailing by nine points after the first half, the Hartwick men's basketball team rallied by outscoring visiting St. John Fisher 46-25 in the second stanza enroute to a 77-65 win on Saturday afternoon at Lambros Arena. The Hawks got hot in the second period as they hit 59.3% (16-of-27) of their shots and held Fisher to just under 38% (11-of-29).
The win gives Hartwick an overall record of 13-7 and an 8-2 mark in the Empire 8. Fisher falls to 11-9 overall and 5-5 in the E8.
Hartwick was led by
Joey Lufkin (Argyle, NY/Argyle) who scored a career and season-high 28 points on 9-of-14 shooting and was a blistering 5-of-6 from beyond the three-point arc.
Jared Suderley (Newport, NY/West Canada Valley) added 18 points and 13 rebounds.
Justin Pratt (North Kingstown, RI/North Kingstown) had 12 points off the bench.
With 13 rebounds on the afternoon, Suderley now becomes the program's all-time rebounder. He came into today's game needing just two rebounds to past Les Miller (1977-1981). Suderley reached the mark at 14:22 of the first half on the defensive glass.
"It's a great accomplishment and an honor to be the all-time leading rebounder," said Suderley after the game. "I couldn't have done it without my teammates and the coaching staff these last four years,"
"Jared has been a great player for us and I couldn't be prouder of him," head coach
Todd McGuinness added. "He has been a constant winner and has helped change Hartwick basketball back to our winning ways."
The Cardinals took a big 15-3 lead at 15:49 early in the first half and seemed poised to run away with the game. 'Wick would chip away at the Cardinal lead with a 10-2 run and trailed only by four points, 17-13, at 12:04. A 12-1 Fisher run restored the double-digit advantage to the Cardinals as they led 29-14 with 7:37 showing on the game clock.
Fisher still led by 15 points, 38-23, with 3:09 to play in the half. Hartwick again would knock down the lead as Lufkin scored all eight of Hartwick's points in the last 2:57 as the Cardinals went into halftime with a 40-31 lead. The Cardinals shot 56% (14-of-25) from the floor in the first frame to under 30% (8-of-27) for the Hawks.
Hartwick regrouped in the second half as it mounted a comeback. It was an 11-point lead for St. John Fisher, 49-38, after a three-point shot from Optimystik Kinard. From there, 'Wick would go on a 13-0 run to take its first lead of day, 51-49, at 13:42.
Two ties and three lead changes followed in just over three minutes of game time. The Cardinals broke a 54-54 deadlock at 10:06 on a trey from Adam Ambielli. A layup from Keegan Ryan followed at 9:08 as Fisher went ahead 59-54. A 23-5 'Wick run spanning over eight and a half minutes of clock time was the difference maker as the Hawks had their biggest lead of the game, 77-63, with 34 seconds remaining to play to come away with the win.
"It was a great win and we played with energy in the second half, said McGuinness. "Joey and Justin were key in the second half and made big plays."
St. John Fisher was led by Ryan's 20 points and 10 rebounds. Chazz Lott tacked on 12 points.
Despite leading in field goal percentage in the second half, the Cardinals had the overall edge in shots 46.3% (25-of-54) to 44.4% (24-of-54) for Hartwick. The Hawks did outshoot the Cardinals in three-pointers 47.4% (9-of-19) to 29.4% (5-of-17). 'Wick was 20-of-27 (74.1%) from the charity stripe compared to 10-of-15 (66.7%) for Fisher.
The Cardinals led in points in the paint, 30-26, but Hartwick led in points off turnovers, 24-10, and in bench points, 22-9. The Hawks outrebounded Fisher 35-32.
'Wick heads on the road for two games next weekend. Hartwick will travel to Elmira to face the Soaring Eagles for the first time this season. Game time will be at 6 p.m. next Friday night. The Hawks will then go against Alfred the next day and play the Saxons at 2 p.m. The last times the teams faced off on January 17, they combined for a Hartwick record of 255 points as the Hawks won 131-124 in overtime.
