New Paltz Drops 82-57 Decision to Geneseo

By Ryan Novitsky

NEW PALTZ – The men’s basketball team at the State University of New York at New Paltz dropped an 82-57 decision to visiting SUNY Geneseo on Saturday afternoon in the Hawk Center.

With the defeat, New Paltz falls to 1-21, 0-16 SUNYAC and will close out the season next weekend, hosting SUNY Plattsburgh and SUNY Potsdam on Feb. 17-18.

Saturday, Feb. 18 will serve as Senior Day as the program will pay tribute to senior forward Andrew Seniuk for his dedication to the team over his career.

Against the Knights (13-10, 8-8 SUNYAC), junior guard Dylan Balducci tallied a team-high 13 points behind a trio of three pointers and grabbed four rebounds and dished out three assists. Seniuk followed with 12 points in 33 minutes of action.

Sophomore forward Brandon Tolliver earned the start and finished with seven points and a game-high 13 boards while sophomore guard Cory Garcia dished out a contest-best eight assists. Freshman guard Tristan Wissemann enjoyed eight points in just 13 minutes off the bench.

For Geneseo, four players finished in double figures led by Justin Ringen who scored a game-high 23 points. New Paltz native C.J. Burke tallied five points, nine rebounds and four assists in 32 minutes.

The Hawks trailed by just three (11-8) following a triple by Balducci with 14:08 to play in the first half. However, the Knights responded with a 23-8 swing to put New Paltz in a 34-16 hole at the six-minute mark. New Paltz trailed at intermission by 13 (37-24).

In the second stanza, Geneseo jumped out to an 18-point edge (47-29) at 15:35 but the Hawks remained diligent and cut that deficit down to 10 (52-42) thanks to a three by Wissemann at 12:42.

Unfortunately, that was the tightest the game was for the remainder of the contest as Geneseo went ahead by as many as 25 points to hand New Paltz the tough league loss.