ONEONTA, NY – The Hartwick women's basketball team is ready to make their return to the NCAA Tournament, as they will play their first Tournament game since 2014 on Friday night. The Hawks will take on Emmanuel College at 5:30 p.m. at the Athletic and Wellness Center on the campus of host SUNY New Paltz.
Hartwick, currently 23-4 and ranked #4 in the East Region, had one of the best seasons in program history, at one point winning 12 consecutive games and eventually winning the program's first Empire 8 Championship. A win against Emmanuel would tie their all-time record of 24 wins in a season, set in 1990.
The Hawks won five of their first six games before losing the seventh, and then went down to Florida to win games against John Carroll (later ranked in the Great Lakes Region) and Olivet in the St. Pete Classic. They got off to an inauspicious start to their conference schedule, falling 83-70 to Nazareth on January 4, but won a dramatic contest on a last-second three the next day against St. John Fisher, starting a twelve-game winning streak that spanned over a month. St. John Fisher snapped that streak in dramatic double-overtime fashion on February 10, shaking off a 10-point Hawk comeback in the final minutes of regulation, but 'Wick rebounded to win their last two games over Stevens and Sage, clinching the right to host the conference playoffs.
Hartwick had a fairly easy go of it in the Empire 8 Tournament. They beat Stevens in the Semifinals, 72-52, thanks in large part to a near triple-double from Mary Schoenherr (Unionville, CT/Farmington). In the Finals the following day against St. John Fisher, the Hawks pulled away at the end of the first half and beginning of the second, withstanding a too-little, too-late comeback from the Cardinals to claim the conference crown, 69-62. Caitlin Corbett (Altamont, NY/Guilderland) had 20 points on 9-of-15 shooting and was named the Tournament MVP.
'Wick has been lead this season by their standout seniors, Corbett and Carly Johnson (Greenville, NY/Greenville Central), both of whom entered the 1000-point club in January. Corbett was named to the Empire 8 First Team, while Johnson achieved Second Team status. They each are averaging over 14.5 points per game, with Corbett in the team lead at 15.2 (shooting 49.5% from the field) and Johnson, who broke the program record for most career threes on January 16, not far behind at 14.8. Maggie Kirby (Selkirk, NY/Bethlehem), an Empire 8 Honorable Mention, is the third-leading Hawk scorer, with 10.4 points per contest in her rookie season. Kelly Pine (Hoosick Falls, NY/Hoosick Falls) bumped her scoring average into the double-digits with 32 points over two games in the Empire 8 Tournament, potting 10.1 a game. Pine leads Hartwick with 7.3 rebounds per game, one of five Hawks averaging over five boards (Corbett at 6.7, Maggie Kirby at 5.6, and Schoenherr at 5.1). Schoenherr has been the main dime disher, compiling 142 assists this year (a top-ten year in Hartwick history), an average of 5.3 per game.
Emmanuel (23-5, ranked 11th in the Northeast Region) won the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) championship, the 16th in program history and the first since 2013. They started out the season with wins against Gallaudet, Westfield State, and Brandeis before taking their first loss to perennial powerhouse Amherst. The Saints won their next three before losing three out of five games, two of which were to NCAA qualifiers MIT and Messiah. They then ripped through their conference schedule, winning their first nine GNAC contests before losing to undefeated St. Joseph's (ME) on the road. Emmanuel cruised to a win in the GNAC Quarterfinals over Colby-Sawyer, 61-39, and won an overtime thriller in the semifinals over Albertus Magnus, 78-72. The Finals brought a rematch with still-undefeated St. Joseph's, and the Saints stunned the Monks, 65-64, taking the lead on a pair of free throws with 8.6 seconds left.
Yuleska Ramirez-Tejada had starred for Emmanuel. The GNAC First Teamer is averaging a double-double, leading the Saints in scoring with 21.0 points per game on 55.9% from the field and in rebounding with 11.1 rebounds per game. She is also third on the team with 2.1 assists per contest and fourth in steals, averaging 1.5 a game. Ramirez-Tejada scored her 1000th career point for the Saints in the fourth quarter of their GNAC Finals victory. Conference Third Team All-Star Maddie McLaughlin is their second-leading scorer, at 13.1 points per game, followed by fellow Third Teamer and GNAC Defensive Player of the Year Kayla Weaver, averaging 12.8 points per game. McLaughlin and Weaver are also first and second on the team in assists, respectively, at 6.0 and 3.2 assists per game. Caitlin Cipriano is the Saints' second-leading rebounder, with 6.2 per game, while Mary McCarthy is third at 5.6 per game. McCarthy also leads the team with an average of 1.5 blocks. Emmanuel has a few accomplished thieves ahead of Ramirez-Tejada; Weaver is far and away their leader in steals at 3.2 per game, followed by Riley Lahiff and McLaughlin at 1.7 each.
Both teams have high-powered offenses, although the Saints seemingly more so with a nationally sixth-ranked 80.4 points per game compared to Hartwick's 73.9 scoring average, tied with Tufts for 37th in the country. The Saints and Hawks are both in the top 25 nationally in field-goal percentage, with Emmanuel in 13th at 45.1% and 'Wick in 23rd at 43.8%. Each squad does a bit worse from deep, as Hartwick has a slight edge in three-point field goal percentage, 33.6% to 33.3%. The Saints have dominated on the boards, outrebounding their opponents by an average of 9.0 per game en route to the 11th-highest rebounding average in the country at 47.96. The Hawks have also comfortably outrebounded their opponents by a more modest 3.9 per game, averaging 41.33 boards overall.
Defensively, Hartwick has limited their opponents to 58.7 points per game, while Emmanuel has allowed an average of 63.6 each contest. The teams have almost identical opponent's field-goal percentages with the squad from Boston allowing a conversion rate of 35.3% from the field while the team from Oneonta gives up field goals at a rate of 35.1%. The Saints have out-stolen the Hawks, with a nationally-ranked 22nd 12.5 steals per game compared to 'Wick's average of 7.7. They also lead Hartwick in blocks per game, at 3.5 to 2.4.
Hartwick and Emmanuel have met only once before all-time, also in the NCAA First Round, in 2012. The Hawks held the early advantage, leading 23-10 with 10:45 to go in the first half, but the Saints stormed back, and the game went into the half tied at 31 apiece. 'Wick had a one-point lead, 41-40, with 12:11 left in the game, but Emmanuel started to put it together, eventually building a 54-45 lead with 6:10 on the clock. Hartwick would not get closer than seven for the rest of the night, losing 68-61. Emmanuel would go on to advance all the way to the Elite Eight, losing to Amherst on the road, 84-61.
The winner of Friday's game advances to the Second Round of the NCAA Tournament, taking on the winner of New Jersey Athletic Conference champion Rutgers-Newark and SUNY Athletic Conference champion New Paltz. The Second Round game will be played on Saturday at 6:00 p.m., again on SUNY New Paltz's campus. The winner of that game moves on to the Sweet Sixteen, the following Friday, March 8.
General admission tickets to each day's session costs $7 for adults and $4 for students (with ID), seniors, and children. Live statistics and a video stream can be found here.
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