ROCHESTER, NY – The Empire 8's 2^nd seeded Hartwick Hawks were defeated in tonight's conference semifinal game by the 3^rd seeded Nazareth Golden Flyers, 68-70.  The game was decided by a last second shot that fell as the clock dropped under 2 seconds left.  Hartwick completed their season with an 18-7 mark while Nazareth will move on to play the top seeded Cardinals of St. John Fisher for the E8 Championship tomorrow.  
 
A back and forth affair throughout, the game saw eight lead changes and ten ties.  Despite being down 6 in the first quarter, Hartwick brought it back to a one possession game thanks to Sareena DiCerbo's and-one layup with under a minute to play.  Those 3 points cuts the Nazareth lead in half and sent the teams into the second at 15-12 in favor of the Golden Flyers.
 
Although Nazareth again pushed their lead to 6 in the second quarter, Hartwick never gave in as Giuliana Pritchard sparked a 6-0 run midway through the period to pull even at 22 with less than 4:30 to play.  Maggie Kirby kept the Hawks right in the mix, scoring 4 of the team's final 5 points, including connecting on two key free throws, to send the teams into the locker room with Nazareth ahead 29-27.
 
Hartwick came out in the 3^rd quarter with some fire, scoring the first 5, and 12 of the first 15 to open up a 7 point advantage with 5:21 to play.  Molly Kirby's free throw with 4:06 to play put the Hawks up 8, their largest lead of the game.  Give Nazareth credit though, as they held their own during the shift in momentum and then took advantage of some late quarter cold shooting by Hartwick to close the 3^rd on an 8-0 run to send the game into the final quarter all squared away at 46.
 
The game's final quarter was action packed, with the teams combining to score 46 points as they each had their best conversation rate of the game (Hartwick shot 47% and Nazareth 56% in the final 10 minutes).   Nazareth quickly raced ahead to take a 6 point lead just a couple minutes in, but Maggie Kirby's long range jumper, Giuliana Pritchard's layup, and Bree Fargnoli's pair of free throws gave Hartwick the lead right back to setup a wild final 5 minutes of action. 
 
Nazareth's Sabrina Wolfe and Hartwick's Maggie Kirby battled back and forth over the next 2 minutes as Wolfe hit a three to go ahead by two before Kirby took a beautiful pass from Kayley Ericson to knot the game up for a few seconds later.  Wolfe again struck from outside but Kirby answered with her own trifecta that hit nothing but net to bring the teams to a 60-60 deadlock with under 3 to play.  6 consecutive Nazareth points appeared to open the game up, but Bree Fargnoli came through clutch by connecting on an old-fashioned three point play with the clock stopped.
 
Down 3 with 1:05 to play, the Golden Flyers again scored but Fargnoli answered to keep the deficit at 3.  On the ensuing possession, Hartwick was attempting to foul to extend the game, but Nazareth broke the press and stayed away from the Hawks trying to stop the clock.  However, during the excitement of playing keep-away, Nazareth lost the ball and gave Hartwick possession down 3 with 23 seconds left on the clock.  After a timeout was called to draw up a play, Hartwick executed to perfection, with Maggie Kirby hitting nothing but the bottom of the net from behind the arc to tie the game at 68 apiece with 12 seconds left.  That shot was Maggie's 999^th, 1,000^th, and 1,001^st point of her exceptional career.
 
Nazareth took time to draw up a play of their own on the next possession and Hartwick got dialed in on defense.  With everyone guarded tight, the game appeared to be headed to overtime until Sabrina Wolfe got just enough separation to get a shot up that ended up falling with 1.9 seconds on the clock.  Hartwick was unable to make anything happen in those final few ticks and the Golden Flyers advanced to the Championship matchup with St. John Fisher.
 
Maggie Kirby led all scorers with 23 points and all rebounders with 13 in 38 minutes played.  The milestone achievement of reaching 1,000 career points came on that final game-tying three pointer that nearly sent the game to overtime.  She reached 1,000 points for her career in 79 games played (all as a starter) by averaging more than 12.5 points per game.  Maggie became the school's 17^th to reach the 1,000 point mark and the first since Caitlin Corbett in 2019.  Her 23 points was a season-high mark for the senior.
 
Giuliana Pritchard scored 18 points in the game, adding 7 rebounds, 2 assists and a blocked shot.  Bree Fargnoli finished the game with 13 points and 7 rebounds to go along with 3 steals. 
 
Hartwick Athletics would like to give one final farewell and send its best wishes to the team's 5 seniors who have made this season another one to remember and left a lasting mark on the program;  Maggie Kirby, Molly Kirby, Giuliana Pritchard, Kayley Ericson and Bekkah Dean.  Congratulations to this group of 5, and to the rest of the team under first year head coach Sarah Lombard and assistant Scott Foster, on an exceptional season.