ONEONTA, NY – The Hartwick Women's Basketball team has won again, this time defeating Sage College by a 66-44 score at home in Lambros Arena. The win pushes Hartwick to a half-game lead in the E8 standings over St. John Fisher, a team that Hartwick defeated earlier in the season. Tonight's win brings the Hawks to 12-4 (7-1) while Sage drops to 8-9 (4-4).
Compared to the last two games, tonight was a slow start for the Hawks, with neither team registering a point until under 7 minutes remaining in the opening quarter.
Maggie Kirby got Hartwick on the board first, ultimately ensuring the visitors wouldn't see a lead all night. Another made basket by Kirby and a jumper from her sister,
Molly Kirby, opened up a 6-0 lead for Hartwick with 6:08 to play. Despite the lead, the Gators scored 6 straight of their own to tie the game, and after trading triples the teams found themselves locked up at 9 apiece. That was the closet Hartwick would allow Sage all night.
The turning point in the game came late in the second quarter for Hartwick, who went on a 9-2 run over the final 2:43 to take a 13 point lead into the half.
Giuliana Pritchard got the run started with a free throw before
Maggie Kirby grabbed the offensive rebound on the second shot and had a beautiful pass to her sister,
Molly Kirby, for a layup. A timeout by both teams gave Hartwick a breather and a quick steal on the inbounds pass led to an
Isabella Astorino layup to extend the lead to 11.
Molly Kirby followed the Gators next miss with a fast break layup to open a 13 point lead only a minute after having a 6 point advantage.
The game was never in jeopardy for Hartwick, who won each of the 4 quarters on the scoreboard. As a team, Wick led in points off turnovers (19-11), 2
nd chance points (14-12), bench points (31-9), points in the paint (38-16) and fast break points (10-2). Each team committed 23 turnovers in the game but Hartwick took the edge on field goal percentage, 39% to just 20% from the visitors.
Leading the way for Hartwick was
Mikyla Mitchell with 17 points on 6-14 shooting. She also led the team with 9 rebounds and added a team-high 3 steals.
Maggie Kirby dropped 14 points and grabbed 6 rebounds followed by
Molly Kirby with 11 points. Ten different Hawks chipped in on the scoring, for yet another well rounded effort by the team.
These two teams will meet again Thursday, this time at Sage College. The tip is set for 5:30PM.
