ONEONTA, NY – Kyle Bradshaw (Tinton Falls, NJ/Manasquan) saved perhaps his best game for his last as he scorched visiting Elmira for a career-high 33 points on Senior Day at Lambros Arena Saturday in an 86-66 win for the Hawks over the Soaring Eagles.
The Hawks finish out the year with their third consecutive victory and a final season tally of 14-11. The Hawks end up with a 6-8 mark in the Empire 8 and a fifth-place finish in the standings.
Bradshaw started hot, hitting 7-of-11 from the floor with three treys in the first half to lead all scorers with 19. He would end up 11-of-18 from the field and 6-of-8 from three-point range to go along with six rebounds, two steals, and a block.
Austin Haskell (Kirkwood, NY/Susquehanna Valley) chipped in a double-double with 15 points and a game-high 11 boards.
After a pre-game ceremony honoring Bradshaw, the Hawks' lone senior, it was Elmira that started the game shooting the lights out. The Soaring Eagles made their first five three-point attempts in the opening 3:16 to race out to a 15-4 advantage. The Hawks settled in and turned it into a one-point deficit roughly three and a half minutes later.
Elmira hung onto its lead until the Hawks tied the score at 27 with 4:35 left in the half on a Bradshaw and-one. The visitors went back in front at 4:17 and held the lead for another two minutes and a half minutes before Haskell tied the score at 33-all with 1:55 left to go. Another Bradshaw old-fashioned three-point play gave the Hawks the lead 35-33, and they held onto it for the duration. 'Wick finished the half on a 12-2 run to hit halftime up six, 41-35.
The Soaring Eagles closed the game to a four-point margin in the first three and a half minutes of the second half, but approximately three minutes after, the Hawks opened up a double-digit lead, 55-44. A three from Bradshaw at 12:53 would make it 14 and the hosts never led by less than 13 points for the rest of the night. The advantage hit 20 at 5:36 and the Hawks' lead grew to as many as 24 points, 82-58, with under three minutes left until they settled on the 20-point victory.
Hartwick shot 53.6% (30-for-56) from the field in the game, including a 44% (11-of-25) clip from three. They held a 39-35 edge on the glass and kept the Soaring Eagles to only 36.4% (24-for-66) shooting for the game.
A total of ten different Hawks made it into the scoring column on the day.
Pat Garey (Johnson City, NY/Johnson City) netted eight points followed by
Tommy Kelly's (Niskayuna, NY/Niskayuna) seven.
Bobby Connors (Rockville Centre, NY/Chaminade) and
Calvin Seward (Bridgeport, CT/Fairchild Wheeler) each chipped in five and
Liam Drennan (Oyster, NY/Chaminade) and
Mike Napoli (Elmsford, NY/Alexander Hamilton) contributed four each off the bench. Kelly dished out a game-high five assists and Garey had three assists and he tied for a game-high three steals.
Jesse Adelson and Shawn Backus each scored 14 points to lead the Elmira attack.
Bradshaw closes out his two-year career at 'Wick with an average of 14 points and 6.4 rebounds in 43 games played. He scored 602 points and drained 101 three-pointers and coupled with his two years at Brookline Community College, he recently hit the 1,000 point mark for his career.
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