Hawks Fall to Catskill Cup Rival Oneonta

By Ryan Novitsky

NEW PALTZ – Senior forward Andrew Seniuk finished with a team-high 16 points on Saturday afternoon but the men’s basketball team at the State University of New York at New Paltz fell to visiting SUNY Oneonta 88-72 in SUNYAC action in Hawk Center. With the defeat, the Hawks trail in the Catskill Cup standings 13-10.

Seniuk finished the game 6-of-11 from the field and a perfect 3-of-3 from downtown while also grabbing six boards for the Hawks (1-8, 0-4 SUNYAC). With the defeat, New Paltz has now dropped seven straight to the Red Dragons.

Along with Seniuk, sophomore guard Cory Garcia dropped 13 points, five assists, three steals and three boards. Sophomore guard Malik Seelal chipped in 12 points off the bench and freshman forward Matt English narrowly missed double-figures with nine points in reserve action.

Meanwhile for Oneonta (4-4, 3-1 SUNYAC), senior forward Mikey McElroy enjoyed a game-high 30 points behind 10 made field goals and 10 made free throws. Graduate student guard Frankie Kelly tallied 15 points, six helpers and five boards while senior forward Lawrence Coleman notched 15 points and 13 rebounds for the double-double.

The contest started out close for both teams as the Hawks claimed a 17-14 lead after a layup from Garcia with 11:21 to play in the opening half. The Red Dragons, however, answered with an 18-8 run to put New Paltz down, 32-25, with a little over three minutes to play.

With over a minute to go in the first stanza, Seelal made a layup to cut the deficit to three (36-33) before the Red Dragons countered with  4-1 run to hand the Hawks a 40-34 hole at intermission.

The second half did not start in favor of New Paltz as the Hawks quickly fell behind by 13, 49-36, with under 18 minutes to go. Despite being down by double-digits, the Hawks battled back and cut the Oneonta lead to six (69-63) after freshman guard Emilio Cerda tallied a bucket at 9:39.

Unfortunately, this was the closest that the Red Dragons allowed New Paltz to get as Oneonta stretched their lead to as many as 18 points in the final half.