Box Score Box Score

GENESEO, N.Y.—The SUNY Oneonta women's basketball team knocked off New Paltz tonight 71-66 to advance to the championship game of the SUNYAC tournament tomorrow at Geneseo. The Red Dragons will face the Geneseo/Cortland at 4:00 p.m. for a trip to the NCAA tournament.

Oneonta will be making its fifth SUNYAC championship game appearance and first since 2004. They are 2-2 in their previous four appearances including its 50-46 loss to Cortland in 2004. Geneseo and Oneonta met once previously in the 1998 final, a 69-60 win for Oneonta, which gave the Red Dragons its first SUNYAC title.

The difference in tonight's contest was Oneonta making 32 free throws to New Paltz's 13. The Red Dragons were 32-of-44 from the line including 8-of-11 by senior Erika Puffer (Unadilla, Unatego). Puffer finished with 10 points and six rebounds.

The Red Dragons (21-6) stormed out of halftime with an 11-0 run to break open a 27-22 score at the break. Back-to-back threes by senior Rebecca Bucci (Marlboro, Our Lady of Lourdes) and junior Madison Slagle (Rome, Rome Catholic) gave Oneonta a 34-22 lead.

New Paltz cut Oneonta's lead to single digits, but the Red Dragons were able to maintain a five-to-eight point lead for the bulk of the second half. The Hawks put a late surge together and actually got as close as three points a couple of times in the final twenty seconds, but ran out of time.

The Red Dragons had five players in double figures led by freshman Kristin Pappalardo (Mahopac, Lakeland), who scored 16 points. Bucci finished with 14 points, Slagle had 11 points and junior Samantha Szkotak (New York Mills, New York Mills) added 13 points for Oneonta. Szkotak led all scorers in the first half with 10 points.

The game began with three runs that gave New Paltz an 18-7 lead at the 10:50 mark. The Hawks opened the contest with six straight points before Oneonta countered with seven unanswered to grab its first lead of the half. A three-pointer by Szkotak gave the Red Dragons the 7-6 lead.

Oneonta's lead didn't last long as New Paltz came back with 12 unanswered points while Oneonta went scoreless for five minutes. A jumper by senior Mary Kate O'Connell (Altamont, Guilderland) halted the run while putting an end to the drought and made the score 18-9 with just over 10 minutes remaining in the opening half.

Oneonta outscored New Paltz 18-4 over the final 10 minutes, which included no points for New Paltz over the final 5:17 of the half, which allowed the Red Dragons to take a 27-22 lead at the break.

Newspaper Box Score
ONEONTA STATE 71, NEW PALTZ 66

NEW PALTZ (16-11)
FISHER, Maliqua 3-4 5-7 11; BRADLEY, Shanay 4-10 2-4 10; BRYANT, Kahsyrah 3-6 2-3 9; MCCULLOUGH, Alex 4-9 0-0 9; COHEN, Zoe 3-12 0-0 8; IRWIN, Caitlin 2-6 2-4 6; GROVER, Bridget 3-3 0-0 6; SCOTT, Jeanette 1-3 2-2 4; CLIFFORD, Kaitlin 1-7 0-1 3; HAUSER, Elizabeth 0-0 0-0 0. Totals 24-60 13-21 66.

ONEONTA STATE (21-6)
PAPPALARDO, Kristin 4-5 8-11 16; BUCCI, Rebecca 4-6 4-6 14; SZKOTAK, Samantha 3-7 5-8 13; SLAGLE, Madison 4-11 2-2 11; PUFFER, Erika 1-5 8-11 10; O'CONNELL, Mary Kate 1-4 3-4 5; MULLIGAN, Kelly 0-0 2-2 2; RUFER, Lisa 0-0 0-0 0; SCHILLING, Grace 0-1 0-0 0; WILVERDING, Kate 0-2 0-0 0; REGAN, Gabi 0-4 0-0 0. Totals 17-45 32-44 71.

3-point goals--New Paltz 5-17 (COHEN, Zoe 2-6; CLIFFORD, Kaitlin 1-2; MCCULLOUGH, Alex 1-4; BRYANT, Kahsyrah 1-2; IRWIN, Caitlin 0-3), Oneonta State 5-12 (BUCCI, Rebecca 2-3; SZKOTAK, Samantha 2-3; SLAGLE, Madison 1-3; WILVERDING, Kate 0-2; PAPPALARDO, Kristin 0-1).

Fouled out—New Paltz-MCCULLOUGH, Alex; BRYANT, Kahsyrah, Oneonta State-None.

Rebounds—New Paltz 33 (BRADLEY, Shanay 11), Oneonta State 40 (SZKOTAK, Samantha 6;
PUFFER, Erika 6; BUCCI, Rebecca 6; PAPPALARDO, Kristin 6).

Assists—New Paltz 9 (CLIFFORD, Kaitlin 3), Oneonta State 11 (MULLIGAN, Kelly 6).

Total fouls--New Paltz 31, Oneonta State 23.

Technical fouls--New Paltz-None, Oneonta State-None.

A-230