ONEONTA, NY – The Hartwick Men's Basketball team had a tough night scoring the rock, leading to the team dropping their Empire 8 opener 44-81 to the visiting Nazareth College Golden Flyers.  Nazareth remains at the top of the standings at 10-1 (2-0) while Hartwick is still searching for their first victory at 0-9 (0-1).

Hartwick shot just 31% from the field on 17-55 shooting including 4-20 from beyond the arc.  Liam Drennan led the Hawks with 9 points, followed closely by Kevin Felasco with 8 and Josh Fenner off the bench with 6.  Felasco had a team high 7 rebounds.

Nazareth's Jonathan Park led all scorers with 23 points in 25 minutes, while also pulling down 11 boards.  He shot a perfect 11-11 from the field and 1-1 from the charity stripe.  Stephen Gabel added 13 and Kevin Underwood scored 11.  The Golden Flyers shot 48% from the field for the contest.

A quick 8 points from the visitors to open the game led to Hartwick taking a timeout early to regroup.  They did just that and two consecutive three pointers by Trevor Brink and Felasco brought the game to within 2 points early on.  Some back and forth play ensued until Fenner sunk a three to pull within 1 at the 12:42 mark followed by another triple from Nick Eiler at 11:11 to tie the game at 15 apiece.  It was at that point that Nazareth began to pull away for good.  The Golden Flyers took a 43-26 lead into the half.

Nazareth came out of the locker room and went on a 16-3 run to widen the gap about halfway through the second stanza.  The Hawks were unable to climb back into the game, going cold from the field and scoring just 4 points in the final 7 minutes of play.  Defensively, Hartwick forced 10 turnovers – the most Nazareth has given up in 3 of the last 4 contests.

Hartwick returns to Lambros Arena tomorrow for a 4pm tip against the Cardinals of St. John Fisher.  SJF comes into the game at 8-3 (2-0).