ONEONTA, NY – Both the Hartwick men's basketball team and visiting Keene State Owls entered Lambros Arena with the same agenda on Friday night, hand their opponent its first loss in the budding season. The Owls would come away with the win, 79-63, to head into day two unbeaten on the season. Hartwick settles at 1-1.

Though Keene State merely edged Hartwick shooting 39.7% from the field in contrast to 'Wick's 36.1% clip, the Owls' smothering perimeter defense got the best of the Hawks, holding the host to just 16.7% from behind the arc. This marks the lowest scoring output for the Hawks since November 14^th, 2015 in an 82-62 loss at Union.

On a three from the left wing, Ty Nichols commenced the scoring at Lambros. This would quickly be followed up on a reverse layup along the right baseline from junior forward Jake Sinicki (Endicott, NY/Maine-Endwell HS) to also see Hartwick on the board.

For much of the first half, both clubs remained on steady footing, each unable to exceed a six-point margin. At 5:32, Nichols would alter the trend, swishing a jumper to put his in team in front by seven, 31-24. At 4:51, Jaquel Edwards would connect from downtown to earn his team the largest lead of the first stanza, 34-24.

The Hawks would continue to claw its way back. Junior guard Matt Knezovic (Ballston Lake, NY/Mansfield University) hit the long-ball with under a minute remaining in the first half to bring his team back within two. Damonte Turner would quickly answer in the corner just as time was expiring to put them back up five, 43-38, heading into the intermission.

Shifting the momentum in the second half's early going, senior guard Joey Lufkin (Argyle, NY/Argyle) sank a trey on a pass from sophomore guard Brandon LaForest (Cohoes, NY/Cohoes HS), to deadlock the score, 43-up, for the first time since the 8:47 mark.

Unfortunately, the Owls would go on to convert a 34-15-point turnaround imbuing its victory as it forced the Hawks into its largest deficit of the game of 19 with less than three minutes to go in the contest.

LaForest led the Hawks with 19 points and six boards. Lufkin gathered 17 points while Sinicki finished with 11 points grabbing seven rebounds. Knezovic came off the bench to add nine points to the Hawks' offense.

Nichols finished in the front for the Owls with 18 points and six rebounds. Matt Ozella tabbed a double-double with 13 points and 13 boards while Dizel Wright supplied 16 points for Keene State.

Tomorrow, November 19^th, the Hawks will wrap up play at The Classic squaring off with Cobleskill at 4 p.m. at Lambros Arena.

In the first game of the evening, Oneonta got the best of Cobleskill, 94-73. The Red Dragons led by as many as 27 never relinquishing their advantage. Able to hold the Fighting Tigers to just 36.1% from the field (27.3% from three), Oneonta tabbed its first win of the season shooting 67.9% from the floor (42.9% from long-range). Oneonta's Mikey McElroy led the charge with 24 points and 11 rebounds.